Are My Hands Clean?

Western Washington University • Bellingham, WA

Western Gallery at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington  presents “Are My Hands Clean?,” a solo exhibition by American artist Rajkamal Kahlon. The exhibition also offers the university and community an introduction to the curatorial vision of the new gallery director, Kelly Lindner. In the press release announcing her appointment (dated October 24, 2025), Lindner stated that “The Western Gallery can play a significant role in broadening perspectives and giving us new ways to  view the world.” Kahlon’s exhibit directly aligns with Lindner’s goals for the gallery and its potential to educate the student population and regional community. 

“Are My Hands Clean?” brings together an impressive combination of two-dimensional work and installations, including one large-scale wall painting. Kahlon has worked to correct Western narratives for decades, specifically visual depictions of women and the impact of the Cold War as the United States and its allies stifled communist movements in what was then called “Third World” countries. 

One piece in particular is central to the thesis of the exhibition: “You Can’t Kill Us, We’re Already Dead.” In the mixed-media work, a female figure reclines across the entire canvas. The figure is dressed in a red skirt suit, and gathers multiple visual references all at once: Nancy Reagan’s infamous attire, Manet’s “Olympia,” Titian’s “Venus of Urbino,” and the meticulous visual language of American might. But the art historical references are only the beginning. In fact, Kahlon pulls together threads from across the globe and throughout history to bring these histories of oppression and objectification to the present day.

Understanding Kahlon’s source materials is an important part of understanding her process and goals. The physical underlayer and conceptual beginnings of many of the works in the exhibit, including “You Can’t Kill Us, We’re Already Dead,” comes from texts and images in historical ethnographical and anthropological books like Die Völker der Erde, published by Kurt Lampert in 1902. The book was part of a larger movement to document people across the world through an objectifying lens. Die Völker der Erde was published in the same period that Edward Curtis traveled around the United States to photograph Native Americans, and seven years before the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, Washington where people from cultures outside the United States were exhibited to the public. These books contained instructions for documenting the physical characteristics of people through photography, with the people often posed and naked or with minimal clothing. Women, in particular, are deprived of agency and presented for the male gaze. Kahlon works to disrupt and correct this lens.

Returning to “You Can’t Kill Us, We’re Already Dead,” we can notice examples of Kahlon’s interventions. The female figure lies on her side on top of what appears to be a leopard fur, another art historical reference. In one hand she holds a green grenade and, in the other, the pin. The figure’s eyes are closed and her head tilts upwards. White stars fill the upper left of the artwork against a blue background. Together the white stars, blue background, red suit on the figure, and white blouse reference the American flag. These interventions are characteristic of Kahlon’s process for this body of work. She reproduces pages from Die Völker der Erde and enlarges specific figures or photographs from the book. Kahlon then paints the outline of her subject, but also gives them clothing, tools, and agency by expanding on that initial outline.

“You Can’t Kill Us, We’re Already Dead” provides a wonderful example of the overall exhibition, but there are two installations worth pointing out here. 

“Die Völker der Erde (People of the Earth)” is an installation that includes pages from the book with Kahlon’s drawings and paintings on the pages. It fills the entire wall, and forces the viewer to confront these images head on. Directly across the gallery from “Die Völker der Erde (People of the Earth)” is “Untitled,” a large-scale wall mural of two figures from the book. Kahlon projected the image and painted the figures directly on the wall to make them larger than life, honoring their lives and presence over one hundred years later. 

Chloé Dye Sherpe

Chloé Dye Sherpe is an art professional and curator based in Washington State.

“Are Your Hands Clean?” is on view through January 23 at the Western Gallery at Western Washington University located at 516 High Street in Bellingham, Washington. Hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. For  information, visit https://westerngallery.wwu.edu.