Artist Mario D’Souza’s new collection ‘Home away from home’ is an ode to tropical vegetation

Mario D’Souza has showcased his works at Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum

Indigo blue pepper vines wind along walls painted white, fruits of cashew, arecanut, water apple and mango peep from clusters of leaves, again all in indigo, while blue flowers bloom in this tropical Eden created by artist Mario D’Souza.

As part of his project ‘Home away from home’, as artist in residency at the Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum (AFT) from November 2 to November 20, the 35 paintings are an ode to the flora of the region.

Red pleated valance, red curtains, a wall painted yellow and coloured pieces of cloth plaited on banana fibre greet visitors to the exhibition. A painting of a hand has pride of place on the yellow wall.

Says Mario: “It is not only an exhibition of my paintings. This is an immersive installation where I make the space a part of the exhibition; a sensory space where past, present and future are juxtaposed. The hand is what helps me transfer what I have seen and imbibed on to the canvas. Home is perhaps the iconography of the show. If we did not have that, neither the knowledge nor its transition can happen.”

A resident of Paris, France, for the last 22 years, 49-year-old Mario says that he does not miss fruits like mango, cashew or banana. “What I miss is the vegetation, the foliage, the greenery of my childhood and the people. Those are my influences in my artistic journey,” he says.

Enchanted by the trees, fruits and flowers that he saw around him, he began capturing those on canvases of different sizes. “My favourite colour is ochre but for the first time, I have used only blue and white in all my works exhibited here,” he says.

His decision to use the colour indigo was based on the special connection between indigo and India. Mario explains, “Indigo is woven into the history of India. It was the colour that made colonisers force farmers to grow indigo and that was the one main exports from India. And it was again indigo that led to the first satyagraha of Gandhi in Champaran in 1917. That’s why all the painting of this collection are indigo on white.”