“Kirtika Kain applies experimental printmaking processes to materials used in ritual and ceremony and considers the histories of labour and social relations that each of these ancient materials has witnessed and absorbed. Drawing out the distinctive qualities and limitations of artistic contact with these materials, Kain thinks through complex questions of history, memory, and the inheritance of the Dalit diaspora. The abstraction in Kain’s work enacts resistance through its illegibility—refusing flattened, singular readings of Dalit aesthetics and experiences, and underscoring the irretrievable gaps in Dalit archives.  

At the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kain presents works in tar and gold leaf, as well as a series of suspended copper plates that punctuate the viewing space. The tar canvases repeat self-citation, with each work having begun from a silicon impression of another. The result is a series of interconnected terrains, nonlinear in their timeline, but with absences and additions that are reminiscent of one another. In Mimetics (2025), the tar appears cracked, like earth charred under extreme heat; in another, a terrain with similar texture is enlivened by gold leaf and red pigment covering the tar. For Kain, this abstraction presents a unique language co-created with historical materials using her own physicality, intuition, and memory. It carries the multiplicity of Dalit inheritances and experiences, particularly those of Dalit women.”