Blue Bloods is a constellation of new material paintings that reflect on the unseen colour and vibrancy of Dalit history. Paying tribute to the colour of Dalit resistance, Blue Bloods is an imagining of the grandeur of an ancient history that has not been valued or archived, but has been absorbed and witnessed by the body, the earth and the cosmos. Each canvas is created by laying raw materials associated with religious festivals and prayer, including cotton wicks, pigments and powders, golds, glass, grains, oils and waxes. The surfaces are compressed, erased, built upon and let to dry layer by layer, an intuitive and unpredictable process unique to each work in the series. Through the Blue Bloods series, I am reflecting on maternal ancestors and exploring the depth and dimensionality of our history and culture, something that is so evident in Dalit literary tradition and song. I am thinking of a whirring festival of shades, of celebration, of dance and light, that blasts open the singular narrative of our oppression. –Kirtika Kain, 2023 |
