Each screen is exposed with excerpts from the Laws of Manu (circa 100 CE), an ancient Hindu legal text that codifies caste and patriarchy. As a Dalit woman born into the former “Untouchable” caste, Kain questions how this ancient text continues to be used as justification for caste and gender violence in modern India.
Exhibition Dates: 30 October – 13 December 2020
The Solar Line assembles a series of 30 recycled silk screens found online and collected from homes around Sydney. Used in decades of textile printing, the disused screens and their embedded histories are reappropriated by Kain. Each screen is exposed with excerpts from the Laws of Manu (circa 100 CE), an ancient Hindu legal text that codifies caste and patriarchy. As a Dalit woman born into the former “Untouchable” caste, Kain questions how this ancient text continues to be used as justification for caste and gender violence in modern India.
The studio is seen as a site of erasure and reclamation; where the authority of divine law is challenged by the irreverence, immediacy and spontaneity of material play. The work engages materials that are synonymous with religion, studio process, labour and value— including gold leaf, tar, religious sindoor pigment and green screen printing emulsion. For Kain, gold is seen as a metaphor for the Dalit body— its qualities have been managed by an arbitrary value system, yet it remains untainted by it.
The screens are transformed into objects that are both ancient and new, fragile as skin and resilient as ancient metals. Their visceral surfaces encase and obliterate the text as it is translated across histories, geographies and time.
Tar, screen printing emulsion, gold leaf, gold paint, sindoor pigment, disused silk screen
59 x 46 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, gold leaf, gold paint, sindoor pigment, silicon carbide, beeswax, disused silk screen
82 x 79 cm
Tar, gold pigment, sindoor pigment, disused silk mesh
113 x 70 cm
Gold leaf, sindoor pigment, beeswax, archival adhesive, disused silk screen
125 x 69 cm
Gold pigment, sindoor pigment, silicon carbide, charcoal, disused silk screen
68 x 49 cm
Gold paint, sindoor pigment, binder medium, disused silk screen
59 x 46 cm
Tar, sindoor pigment, iron filings, gold pigment, disused silk screen
35 x 35 cm
Tar, gold leaf, gold paint, iron filings, silicon carbide, beeswax, tape, disused silk screen
37 x 37 cm
Tar, gold leaf, rice paper, silicon carbide, beeswax, disused silk screen
35 x 35 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, gold leaf, rice paper, beeswax, disused silk screen
88 x 88 cm
Screen printing emulsion, gold leaf, beeswax, disused silk screen
64 x 49 cm
Screen printing emulsion, gold leaf, gold pigment, beeswax, disused silk screen mesh
74 x 50 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, gold leaf, rice paper, beeswax, disused silk screen
40 x 35.5 cm
Oil paint, charcoal, gold paint, gold pigment, beeswax, copper leaf, disused silk screen
90 x 80 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, rice paper, beeswax, tape, disused silk screen
37 x 37 cm
Tar, plaster, vermilion pigment, screen printing emulsion, silicon carbide, disused silk screen
79 x 58 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, silver leaf, copper leaf, rice paper, beeswax, disused silk screen
60 x 48 cm
Oil paint, gold pigment, beeswax, disused silk screen
67 x 59 cm
Oil paint, gold pigment, beeswax, disused silk screen
67 x 59 cm
Oil paint, gold pigment, beeswax, gold leaf, disused silk screen
67 x 59 cm
Tar, silicon carbide, cardboard, tape, disused silkscreen
67 x 58 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, copper leaf, silicon carbide, disused silk screen
41.5 x 34 cm
Tar, screen printing emulsion, copper leaf, rice paper, disused silk screen
60.5 x 48.5 cm
Tar, gold pigment, silicon carbide, beeswax, disused silk screen mesh
36.5 x 36 cm
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