Honoured to be part of Common Ground, the Indian Ceramics Triennale at Arthshila, Delhi, Jan 19-March 31 - my work Girmitya HerStories installed on the ground floor.

Girmitya HerStories: Kali Pani Crossings brings to light the little-known histories of Indo-indentureship. When used in the diaspora, 'Kala Pani' refers to the large-scale migration out of India from 1838 to 1917, where one and a half million Indians left the subcontinent to work in the sugar plantations as indentured labourers, half a million to the Caribbean. They replaced/displaced the slaves after emancipation. The work is comprised of both an audio-visual component and a ceramic installation. The artist photographed ten Indo-Caribbean Canadian women from diverse backgrounds, each holding a portrait of a female ancestor. The portraits each have a corresponding short video that gives voice to the women, locates each within the double diaspora -- from India, to the Caribbean, to Canada -- and tells something of the story of their ancestor. The ceramic piece weaves together portraits of these same women with archival family photographs laced with silver leaf, recalling the silver halide photographic process, as well as the silver coin of their meagre wages. The portraits are punctuated by photographs of the Kali Pani. Images of the “black waters” interrupt the visual tapestry and signal the hardship of the ancestors’ three to five-month voyage during their migration to a new land and the uncertain and ultimately bleak futures that awaited them. 

I would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council for their support in making this happen.