Urban Kali for Naina Sen’s Shundori, Darwin Festival 2025

Rakini Devi’s 2-hour performance of Urban Kali was an activation of filmmaker and video artist Naina Sen’s large-scale, conceptual video work Shundori, for Darwin Festival 2025. Created over five years between India and Australia, this sensorial experience deconstructs and reconstructs the idea of the Indian feminine through stylised, futurist metaphorical reimagining of Indian feminist mythology.

Rakini Devi was invited to present her work Urban Kali in the context of Sen’s work, as part of an accompanying series of events during the exhibition of Shundori. Rakini Devi situates Kali iconography within a secular urban landscape, drawing on three decades of performances and research, including her doctoral thesis: Urban Kali from sacred dance to secular performance (2018) that addresses global misogyny, colonialism, and racism.

Presented by Darwin Festival and Qubit Gallery.
Special Thanks to Carriageworks for Rakini’s film- site, at the Blacksmith’s Workshop.

Video filming, projection design, and installation, Shundori concept and sound by Naina Sen.

Rakini performance images by Darwin based visual artist Lee Harrop. (@lee_harrop)

Video by Harley Stumm, Intimate Spectacle.