Kali Arulpragasam is a jewellery designer based in London, UK. She is the founder and creative director of the jewellery company and label "Super Fertile," founded in 2006.
Contents |
Arulpragasam's designs with Super Fertile are politically conscious in form, influenced by social realism, the environment and nations torn at war.[1][2][3] Her latest line "Tourism (Terrorism affects Tourism)" features signature oversized silver- and gold-plated necklaces, shaped like murals, using countries such as Haiti, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Sudan as themes. This collection features a series of breastplate necklaces that hang below the navel and celebrate positive aspects of war-torn nations. Iraq's shows fruit, a mosque, and a tower at Samarra, Sudan's shows cows and fishermen, Sri Lanka's depicts a boat, palm trees and a peacock, whilst Israel's shows horses, temples and laughing men and women.[3][4]
The ornaments, hand-cut, were made "to be huge, so you could see them across the room." She says “There’s more to these countries than guys with guns standing in rubble... What are the plants like? What music are the kids listening to? That’s what I wanted to show.”[4] Arulpragasam plans to donate each respective necklace design to museums of their corresponding countries.[2] Another line, "Endangered Species" features a collection of three piece rings resembling knuckle dusters that feature the heads of rhinos, stags and bulls.[2]
Arulpragasam is a British Tamilian of Sri Lankan descent. She is the eldest child of Arul Pragasam and Kala Arulpragasam and is the older sister of artist Mathangi (M.I.A.) Arulpragasam and Sugu Arulpragasam. The family fled the civil war in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. She worked at advertising firms in New York and Los Angeles in the US, before moving to London, where she was raised, in 2006. She works from her studio based in the East End of London.