About

Stirling Kain (b. 1998) is an emerging photographer using experimental film and darkroom practices to speculate fictive worlds.

Her practice is strongly influenced by nineteenth-century photographic workflows (wet plate collodion), and twelfth-century monastic mystic Hildegard von Bingen.

Kain improvises props and sets as subjects for her tintype and ambrotype prints, splintering historical photographic techniques with contemporary film practices. She is interested in idiosyncrasy, iconolatry, and ephemera as throughlines to communion between art object and viewer.

Kain has exhibited locally and nationally since 2023. She graduated with a Bachelor of Art (History of Art maj., History min.) from the University of Western Australia in 2020. As an arts worker, she produces art festivals and events.

Exhibition History

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025
CURRENT Gallery | I poured out honey

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
Wallace at With | The Foreign Within (curated by Helen Curtis)

2024
Linden New Art | Postcard Show 2024-5

PRIZES & AWARDS

2024
Museum of Australia Photography | LOOK! Prize | Finalist

2023
City of Melville | Art Awards | Finalist
Midland Junction Arts Centre | Voices | Finalist

Artist Residencies

2025
Perth Institiute of Contemporary Art | Quick Response Residency (November 2025)

Professional Memberships

National Association for the Visual Arts, 2023 – present
Tone List, 2024 – present
Perth Centre for Photography, 2024 – present
Museum of Australian Photography, 2024 – present

Committee Memberships

Sculpture at Bathers, February 2023 – February 2024