- Record: found
- Abstract: found
- Article: found
Embodiments of bitter narratives: constructing possible Indo-Caribbean identities through the karela
Abstract
This critical conversation between multidisciplinary artist Sarojini Lewis and curator Priya Swamy explores the possibilities of exhibiting and telling histories of Indian indentured labour otherwise. Focusing on the installation Why Do You Have a Face Like a Sopropo? (Worldmuseum Rotterdam, 2020), Lewis details why and how she sees a bitter, resilient and uniquely shaped vegetable like bitter gourd (‘karela’ in Hindi, ‘sopropo’ in Sranang Tongo) as an extension of memory and ancestry. The authors begin by discussing the karela as an ‘alternative text’ (Mahabir 2009), before contextualising Lewis' wider artistic practice. They then discuss in depth the installation Why Do You Have a Face Like a Sopropo?, its implications, and its methods. Finally, as a form of conclusion, both authors reflect upon what it means to have worked on this installation together, from within their distinct positionalities, and what this may imply for Indian indentured labour histories and experiences in the context of global Indian diaspora narratives.
Content
Author and article information
Notes
Kempadoo refers here to her research into archival photos of female Indian indentured labourers in Trindad between 1860 and 1960. We are particularly compelled by her perspective, as both authors work closely with the archive of colonial photography in the National Museum of World Cultures (The Netherlands), which depicts female indentured labour bodies from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The photographer, P. M. Legene (1885–1954) was a missionary active in Herrnhut. This is doubly significant, given Sarojini Lewis's work with the Herrnhut collections (see following section).
Another significant work of poetry related to the karela is English poet Daljit Nagra's ‘Karela!‘ (2007), which explores the texture and cooking processes of this vegetable in relationship to the familiar feelings of home that it brings, despite its bitterness.
It was deemed more ‘safe’ for the residency programme to place me among south Asian language students who were living at a residence at a larger distance from the square where the PEGIDA held their protests. The acronym is for ‘Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West’, an organisation that started to demonstrate from 2014 in Dresden, eastern Germany. They stand for anti-Islamic policies and anti-migrant attitudes.
This is our take on his legendary words ‘the revolution will not be televised’ from the song of the same name (1971).