"kiran reilly-gill (b. 1997, subang jaya, malaysia) is a textile artist, writer, researcher, and educator based between toronto and kuala lumpur. born to an irish-canadian mother and a punjabi sikh father, his life has been shaped by movement between continents and cultures. he works with pre-industrial textile practices—natural dyes, weaving, spinning, and stitching—as acts of reclamation, mourning, and remembrance. he has attended artist residencies at the centre for craft in halifax-kjipuktuk, canada; textilmidstod in blönduós, iceland; and rimbun dahan in selangor, malaysia. he has also received grants from the canada council for the arts."
artist's cv and exhibition history.
my research focuses on the history of natural dyes and pigments, with particular interests in ethnobotany, craft theory, class struggle, and sustainability. i am particularly interested in the connection between ethnobotany, historical materialism, and textile culture - specifically how the relationship between humans and plants shapes the textiles created by a society in tandem with their material conditions. i tend to centre south and southeast asia in my work, but i am also interested in global economies and histories of migration.
through zat warna, i study plants and other materials for pigment and dye creation as part of a lifelong body of work examining the relationship between colour, botany, and imperialism. some key ideas that lead my research: