Rajkamal Kahlon: Are My Hands Clean?

South Asian American artist Rajkamal Kahlon challenges Western knowledge production and recovers the humanity of anonymous women from early 20th-century anthropological books. She then physically intervenes in the materials by disassembling, enlarging and overpainting. Her subversive and colorful interventions address political violence by re-dressing the women in outfits inspired by radical feminists and revolutionaries. She also arms them with grenades, machine guns and machetes so they can fight back against their oppressors. Kahlon’s profound relationship to trauma and resilience stems from her own remarkable life story. westerngallery.wwu.edu