JOSH KLINE: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

At the center of Josh Kline’s science fiction project Personal Responsibility (2023–24) is a series of fictional interviews with people living through catastrophic climate change in a future America. Many of the characters featured are “essential workers”—the individuals who will still have to physically go into work, often at great personal risk, while those in higher-paying jobs can work from home in comfort and safety. Although set decades from now, these videos are informed by extensive research into survivors’ experiences of climate-related disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey, as well as the recent California wildfires.

First shown at the Whitney Museum in 2023, these videos are part of a larger sculptural installation set in the aftermath of a future climate disaster. By visualizing and making relatable the forecasts of climate scientists, Kline raises questions about whether Americans are willing and able to work together to prepare for, and possibly mitigate, what is to come.

About the Artist

Josh Kline is a New York-based artist working in installation, video, sculpture, and photography. His work questions how emerging technologies are being used to change human life in the 21st century. He often utilizes the technologies, practices, and forms he scrutinizes—digitization, data collection, image manipulation, 3D printing, commercial and political advertising, and productivity-enhancing substances—aiming them back at themselves. Some of his best-known videos use early deepfake software to speculate on the meaning of truth in a time of post-truth propaganda. At its core, Kline’s practice is focused on work and class, exploring how today’s most urgent social and political issues affect the people who make up the labor force.

Kline’s art has been widely exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, and MoMA PS1 in New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; ICA Boston; ICA Philadelphia; Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo; Moderna Museet in Stockholm; Haus der Kulturen der Welt and KW in Berlin; Modern Art Oxford in the UK; the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; and the National Gallery of Singapore, among many others.

Kline’s works are included in the collections of major museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Artwork Location