2025, Watercolour and gouache on wasli scroll / 50 x 300 cm (each) / Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation.
The installation ‘reimagines the movement of an ocean’, says Simpson, whose Indian ancestors were sent to South Africa as indentured labourers to work on colonial sugar plantations. kappal kari / kūli kari draws from South Asian wasli scroll and miniature painting traditions to explore an ‘unmapping of South Asian indentured women across oceans’ and the ‘movement that displaced, migrated and moved their bodies across oceans for trade, labour and empire’. As a descendant of these women, Simpson gives determined care and attention to their untold stories. Her intricate paintings ‘acknowledge the experiences of these women, my family, my ancestors and what they went through’, she states.
From a text by Hanahiva Rose. © Sharjah Art Foundation
