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Akhil Kang (ਅਖਿਲ | อาคิฬ)

@kangbang09

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Jalandhar - New Delhi 🇮🇳 | New York 🇺🇸
Sarawat's wife
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Dr. Akhil taken in Cornell University by @kangbang09

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a year ago

Is the world ready? First publication from my phd work! My article called 'To be Upper Caste/ to be a victim' is published in Contemporary South Asia. I explore caste and affect, and use 'woundedness' to see how being hurt is innately tied to being an upper caste. Through my ethnography, I am interested in seeing the simultaneity of upper caste's humanity as well as inhumanity. by @kangbang09

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2 years ago

Update: The upi id is 9871647619@ybl if the QR is saturated

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An appeal from Dalit queer community organisers:

Help us support a Dalit queer activist going through a difficult time in their life. For some time now, B has been navigating prolonged unemployment. This instability has made it increasingly difficult for them to keep up with everyday expenses and has also led to accumulating debt. We’re raising funds to help them clear this debt and cover a few months of basic living expenses such as housing, groceries, etc., giving them some much-needed break to rebuild financial stability, find sustainable employment, and get back on their feet. B has actively organised and worked within queer, Dalit, and disabled communities for more than a decade now, and they have never let their personal circumstances get in the way of showing up for others. Through this fundraiser, we hope to show up for them in a small way. We are hopeful that the amount we raise will give B the time, security, and dignity to recover without having to carry the weight of debt and survival alone.
Any contribution, however small, can make a meaningful difference. If you’re unable to contribute financially, sharing this fundraiser within your networks is equally valuable.
Thank you for standing in solidarity with us.

Dalit Queer Project @dalitqueerproject by @kangbang09

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a month ago

i joined a tibetan buddhist monastery in nepal for my spiritual renaissance, only to realize that the path to enlightenment is indeed by abolishing desire, but while serving lewks taken in New York City by @kangbang09

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8 months ago

Generic Orgies with Nameless Men #1, Sep 2025, 16x12.5 in, charcoal (pencil, stick and powder) with pastels on @archespapers Hot Pressed Watercolor paper.

It was a strange experience. My eyes felt overstimulated by the bodies touching each other around me and at the same time felt gloomy for not ‘seeing’ anyone. Everyone could be anyone, all of us replaceable. After touching a few and being touched by some, my eyes met his. A wave of sensations rushed from the tip of my toes, travelling across my legs, torso and centered around my nipples. His hair, his eyes, his beard, his legs – the sight of him was so mesmerizing that I froze. What are the protocols? How do I slither around the bodies surrounding us and watching us and how do I hold him? He was looking around and his eyes looked hungry. I hoped they would fall on me, and I hoped that my eyes looked lonely, willing to submit. I was debating these logistics in my head so intensely that I didn’t realize that he was indeed looking at me…. searching for something? He did something so trivial – eyes boring into mine, body stationed, he moved his chin just an inch. Transfixed I followed his eyes, and they fell on his dick. I forgot everyone around me and only remember his eyes. What a strange experience! His body detached from his own, his fingers never finding warmth and yet his eyes betraying his need for me – a replaceable body. I needed to know his name. But what are the protocols? For willingly ruining yourself for a nameless, empty man?

Process: I sketched this piece thinking about him. As a reference, I used an image from a Voyr Media (@voyrmedia) video featuring the performer Gabriel Coimbra @ogabrielcoimbraofc (June, 2024). I used charcoal powder to create a soft tone in the first two layers and then added two more layers using the harsh lines from a charcoal pencil and charcoal stick. I didn’t blend or soften these lines to indicate a detached intimacy I felt both while drawing this piece and in those moments with him. I spent an unnecessarily long time drawing the figure's hair (around 7 layers) trying to reconcile with not being able to hold his hair during my brief moments with him by @kangbang09

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a year ago

Yearning – November 2025, (with mount) 21.5 x 17.5 in – charcoal, soft pastels, with Gotta Patti lace with Aari and Dabka embroidery on Strathmore Vellum paper – After all these years, it finally took Harlem for her to give into her madness and collapse. One evening I massaged my friend’s back and while unknotting her pain, I caught a glimpse into her collapse. “I see beautiful rivers flowing within you…with splendid colors, and elf-life creatures singing!” I told her. Smiling, she rolled her cigarette and started moving towards her balcony. “No, seriously!”, I almost shouted, following her, “you carry so much pain on your body, dissolving into the layers of your skin, but your core is so carefree!” She then told me that all her life she was running away from her pain despite being hopelessly consumed by it, and that the wonderful, chaotic city of New York finally allowed her to feel lost. How extraordinary it is; to finally feel freedom outside your body to be able to feel your body. I didn’t know what was more beautiful; her finally giving into her pain, or her living in such close proximity to the 1 subway line.” (the best subway line, really!)

Process: After creating a base layer with powder from a charcoal stick with a round brush, I used Soft, Medium and Hard charcoal pencils to show different levels of depth within the sketch. I decided to create softness with books, figure, trees, and hardness with the building and windows to indicate distance, both with each other and the viewer. As is common with my other sketches, I use soft pastels to materialize my undying obsession with drawing sunsets. I used an embroidered lace to show life within the windows. I used another lace (on the 4 boundaries) as a mount for the final frame. I bought these laces in good old Lajpat Nagar. This is my first sketch from New York, and I wanted this sketch to fall in love with my first sketch from New Delhi. I sketched ‘A date in Lajpat Nagar’ in 2019 and decided to get something from Lajpat Nagar for Harlem! One book’s title is an ode to a friend who thought this sketch is a homosexual version of Devdas (ha!) and the other book’s title is ‘yearning’ in Thai by @kangbang09

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a year ago

Woundedness #6 - Untitled, July 2022, charcoal mixed with soft pastels

my wound had collapsed into theirs, and their wound became mine. their wound kept drawing me in, and i was incapable of resisting it. it started mattering too much but i foolishly thought that it could only matter if i chose to write about it

in these woundedness series, i translate my ethnography and interviews studying upper caste victimhood with brahmins and jats into art/visual/material

This particular piece is inspired by @guy_denning and @mad.charcoal 's works by @kangbang09

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a year ago

HaraTe (August 2024), charcoal with poster color, soft pastel, pen on @archespapers watercolor 300 gsm paper, 12 x 16 in

Walking in a city made strange by familiar lovers, and made familiar by old friends, I talked about life, love, loss, and ambition with my friend. In Bangalore/Bengaluru, where the skies are kinder, and the trees are your constant companions, I asked my friend if we could walk around the city, within it, and somehow find a way to mend our broken hearts. “Do you think we’ll ever not feel lonely?”, I asked them. “Have you met this world?! How could we not be [lonely]!”, they answered. We talked, and we walked, we posed, and somehow, we found a way to be lonely together. 'HaraTe' in Kannada means to chitchat/gossip/talk and I couldn't think of a better word to capture this moment!

I absolutely love Mughal miniature art (between 16th-18th century), its structure, the vibrancy, the playfulness and tried to incorporate techniques from paintings I saw at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, The Museum of Art & Photography, Bangalore, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The San Diego Museum of Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In particular, I was stunned by the Book of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras exhibit at @mapbangalore and took many references from its most gorgeous pages! I traced every curvature, angles in its pages – of its trees, buildings, carpets, figures, and experimented with them. by @kangbang09

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2 years ago

Ākali (May 2024), charcoal, with pen, ink, poster colors, and soft pastels on @strathmoreart vellum paper, 14 in x 17 in

I was in Hyderabad, staying with a friend. To be visiting a friend's house after ages and invited to be a part of their everyday chaos, love, life is so special. I had forgotten that to be loved is not to be invited into the extraordinary event of someone's life, but a regular everyday. I pictured my friend feeding her daughter. Ākali, in Telugu, means hunger (English) / bhookh (Hindi). She was wearing a blue sambalpuri silk sari and the second I saw her sari I knew I would want to color the sky the same shade as that sari. She was surrounded by her everyday life, music, and the care she took of her plants that were once tended by her late father. I took this picture, after having eaten the best lunch of my life, prepared by her mother, and listening to her husband (also a friend) play an obscure tune on his flute - really! The most ordinary day! Friends without knowing, feeling tend to mend your broken heart. A cruel lover told me, while breaking my heart, that I could perhaps be a good friend but will never make a good boyfriend. Something died inside me, but the next day I thought, 'hey! maybe that's all there is to me. And that's ok. because i am a good friend'. I continue to carry that little death inside me. Maybe it does take a bad boyfriend to recognize the good friend within you. by @kangbang09

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2 years ago

Woundedness #5 - Untitled, March 2025, charcoal mixed with soft, hard pastels

tracing his pain from his skin, to brain, to career, to death, i realized that he couldn't understand his own pain. i had given an entire theory to it, even devised plans to save myself from it, but realized that i didn't give it the dignity it deserved - everyone's pain means something, no? even if it renders mine meaningless? thus, i began to tell him about my pain, and i dont know, it felt like something shifted within both of us, and i dont know, it felt like we both were the same person after all

i work with upper caste victimhood and woundedness by @kangbang09

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a year ago

Naache Badchalan (Dec 2022), charcoal, pen, graphite and oil pastels on @strathmoreart vellum paper, 17x14 inches

Imagined my friend performing kathak in the iconic old Delhi Chandni Chowk's spice market. I sketch for the love of buildings, for the love of sky, for the love of boundless queer joy

Check out the process in my IG highlights! by @kangbang09

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4 years ago

Loitering Lovers (Sep 2022), charcoal + oil pastels on @strathmoreart vellum paper, 17 × 14 inches

What would the public erotic be, if not for lovers who loiter. Requested my queer-trans friends to model for me at the Hauz Khaz fort in Delhi and used them reading Eileen (or not reading hehe) as a reference image for this sketch by @kangbang09

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4 years ago