Kali Arulpragasam
Kali Arulpragasam is a jewelry designer and Artist based in London, UK. She is the founder and creative director of the Artistic jewellery label "Super Fertile," founded in 2006.
Super Fertile
Arulpragasam's designs with Super Fertile are politically conscious in form, influenced by social realism, the environment and nations torn by 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]
She launched CRA$H in Paris Fashion Week 2nd Oct 2009., Showing the current climate of the 2008/9 credit crunch. All stones of pendants showing numbers, percentages, statistics in the form of bar charts and pie charts filled with stones some as many as 3000 stones. Showing the Billions and trillions of Debt the countries are in, unemployment rise, healthcare issues in the US, National debts, consumer debts, exports slumped and all money wasted on wars.
- Rich Girl Vs. Poor Girl (S/S 2007)
- Endangered Species (A/W 2007)
- Tourism (S/S 2008)
- Hunger (A/W 2008)
- The Real Super Stars (S/S 2009)
- CRA$H (S/S 2010)
- Mankind (A/W 2010)
- Murder (AW2011/2011)
- THE WORLD (SS/AW 2012)
- Golddiggers (SS/AW 2013)
Personal life
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 singer, performer and entertainer Mathangi Arulpragasam (M.I.A.) and brother Sugu Arulpragasam. She was born in London. Clapham South London. At 2 years old she returned to Sri Lanka, and was schooled in Sri Lanka and India. The family fled the civil war in Sri Lanka in the 1980s at the age of 10. She went on to follow a path in Art and Design studied at Kingston College, West Thames College and went on to graduate from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London 1997. She worked at advertising firms in London, 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.
