kiran reilly-gill (b. 1997, subang jaya, selangor, malaysia) is a textile artist and writer based between tkaronto and kuala lumpur. born to an irish-canadian mother and a punjabi sikh father, his life has been shaped by movement between continents, languages, and cultures. he works with land-based pre-industrial textile practices—natural dyes, weaving, spinning, and stitching—as acts of reclamation, mourning, and remembrance.

his research focuses on the history of natural dyes and pigments, with particular interests in ethnobotany, craft theory, imperialism and class struggle, sustainability, and archaeology. he is particularly interested in the connection between ethnobotany, historical materialism, and material culture - specifically how the relationship between humans and plants shapes the textiles created by a society in tandem with their material conditions.

kiran studies plants and soil for pigment and dye creation, as part of a lifelong body of work based on the idea of colour as a living thing that is a collaboration between artist, community, and land. key ideas that lead his research: 
     - colour is specific to a place and time
     - colour shifts and changes across time
     - the pursuit of colour is tied to the history of wealth extraction and labour exploitation, and this history is an ongoing process
     - colour does not have to be created using methodologies that harm living beings and the environment

kiran has attended artist residencies in canada, iceland, malaysia, and indonesia, and is a canada council for the arts grant recipient. he currently attends the undergraduate program in material art and design at ocad university.