Kirtika Kain

What gives a material its value? Kirtika Kain’s work begins from the proposition that value is never intrinsic but produced through histories of labour, exchange and social hierarchy. Gold, copper, tar, hessian, beeswax and iron filings occupy the same surface, while the works themselves move between painting and sculpture. Layering, transfer and abrasion serve to fracture, peel back and rebuild these densely worked surfaces. As Kain has remarked, where language reaches its limits, “the material holds that space”. Drawing on her Dalit heritage, she explores the histories of caste in India, the hereditary social hierarchy that has long assigned particular forms of labour and materials to specific communities. Bringing substances historically separated by caste and ritual into contact, Kain examines how value becomes attached to both materials and the people who work with them.

Kirtika Kain’s work explores what gives a material its value. It is grounded in the idea that value is never intrinsic, but produced through histories of labour, exchange and social hierarchy.