Artist Bio:
Kirin Kane (they/them) is a mixed media sculpture and installation artist exploring the effect of internal narrative on worldbuilding, relationships, and self-conception. Kane holds a BFA in Ceramics from Northern Illinois University and has exhibited in venues across the country, including Woman Made Gallery, The Clay Art Center, Barkan Gallery, LUX Center for the Arts, and Belger Arts Center. Past residencies include LAUNCH with Chicago Artist Coalition and the Color Network Mentorship Residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Currently, Kane is the Director of Ceramics at Lillstreet Art Center and teaches at Moraine Valley Community College.

Artist Statement:
I create mixed media sculpture and installation examining the volatility of internal narrative and the ramifications of what we believe on who we become. While my practice is rooted in ceramics, I frequently incorporate additional media such as printmaking, metalworking, and found objects for their practical and conceptual merits. Across media, I prioritize repetitive, tedious, and laborious processes to build up cluttered and intricate texture: carving hundreds of petals in a flower, delineating every hair on a rabbit’s head, shaping porcelain sprinkles by hand. These processes are foundational to my practice because they embody the ruthless machinations of the mind but culminate in physical objects that can be observed and examined in ways the mind cannot. While each object can stand alone, my practice is most vibrant when constructing environments, scenes, and stories with the objects that I’ve made.

Exhibition Statement:
Something to remember you by materializes mourning into a series of six ceramic altars and mixed media mementos. Altars are simultaneously utilitarian in that they hold objects and deeply spiritual in their containment of love, grief, and longing. Each altar contains a memento created in edition – a book, a print, an illustration, a handful of porcelain sprinkles – as a representation of a memory held by multiple parties. Grouped together, each altar embodies the emotions surrounding the memories of the objects they hold.