Thooli began as a deeply personal response to my own postpartum experience, understood only years later through the distance of time and reflection. Composed entirely of donated fabrics, the installation gathers soft, suspended forms into clusters of gently curving lines that intersect, overlap, and separate. Their shifting contours suggest both the presence of the body and the quiet spaces left in its absence.

The tangled web of swaying fabric reflects the invisible networks that once carried knowledge of childbirth, care, and healing across generations. As these traditions become increasingly fragmented, the work mourns what has been lost while honoring the enduring desire for connection, comfort, and collective memory. 

After the Birth is one sculptural component of Thooli, a multipart project that explores postpartum experiences through installation, storytelling, and community engagement. The work brings together an anthology of stories reflecting on postpartum care, the loss of intergenerational knowledge, contemporary emotional, financial, and societal challenges faced by mothers, maternal health, and the changing role of the village in raising children. 

Rather than viewing postpartum care as a private responsibility, Thooli asks what becomes possible when communities, healthcare providers, and policymakers come together to address the emotional, financial, medical, and social challenges of the postpartum journey while honoring ancestral knowledge and embracing contemporary maternal care.