Derek Tumala: Phantom Limb

Phantom Limb (2025) is a mystic setting for loss and regeneration. Exploring the evasiveness of facts and the surplus of damage, the work speculates and asks: “What is missing?” A network of 7 video objects composes a deconstructed film of one-act tales in perfect loops. The doomsday fish sits across from an ant swarm forming a skull; one is a premonition of an end, the other a resurgence from death. In these inevitable cycles, there is little difference between beginning and end.

Guided by artistic and scientific research, Phantom Limb foregrounds Derek Tumala’s preoccupation with our impulse to construct fragments and narratives in the wake of uncertainty. Objective realities become material for mythological worlds; fiction produces reliable truths.

About the Artist

Derek Tumala is a visual artist based in Manila, Philippines. He works with emerging technologies, moving image, and interdisciplinary media in the pursuit of ecological world-making.

Tumala’s international exhibitions include the Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts (2025), Biennale Jogja (2023), the Sainsbury Centre (2023), and the World Weather Network (2022–24). He founded Mvltiverse, a multimedia collective focused on moving image, and STEAM/Projects, a collective of technologists and artists working across new media.

Tumala has held residencies at Delfina Foundation (UK) and apexart (NY), received grants from the British Council and IRRI, and was named one of ArtReview's Future Greats (2024).