Inner feelings, stillness, timelessness. These are some of the words that come to mind as one looks at Marie Dias Arora’s works, now on display at Alliance Francaise in New Delhi. Aptly titled “Inner Terrains”, the exhibition seeks to take you to the lap of nature, and a world where serenity is an abiding emotion. Marie is trained in etching in Paris under master printmakers Krishna Reddy and William Hayter. Her solo show is all about drawings in ink and mixed media on paper.
In some works, the artist’s experience as a painter specialising in water-colours overwhelms, but over all she has expressed herself through inks, pens and pastels. Apart from the works which are inspired by nature, she has also drawn inspiration from her inner emotional life – from memories of childhood and from experiences like birth and death.
Edited excerpts from a chat:
Where does your interest in nature stem from?
My inspiration came from my visit to gardens in Kashmir where some trees were cut into a particular shape. The roots were tortured in this process and were not able to grow. Like root is the inception point of a tree that eye catching pattern of roots was the inception point for my art form. Like one of the art pieces here drawn with strokes of black and grey. It is a reflection of the design of roots.
Your love for patterns in tree and wood is being depicted in drawings. How nature as a whole inform you as an artist?
Since the inspiration was initially from roots it has made me explore more patterns which are around us, including the patterns present in woods as well as pattern of leaves. The works exhibited here are largely inspired by the organic and evocative patterns in nature like entangled roots and branches, sea, sand and cliff.
Tell us about your medium of choice in the works…
I use Japanese ink brush-pens which are not traditional pens from there but are made there, fine artist pens and pastel. As my art is all about balancing, so through this visual language, I express a balance between freedom and control. The process is initially free and fluid brush strokes of the composition which ultimately develops into a complex layered textural image.
Are you devoted to philosophy and biology of the body as you create organic structures which mean nothing on their own but when combined with other elements they become an art piece?
As the nature’s organic structures spread to available spaces sometimes even trickle downwards through fissures and gaps, eroding what is in its way, my work also has no rules to follow as I break rules of my own. For combining the elements I draw the idea first and then it’s like a construction of building which I assess at the time of making and there is no possibility of undoing it. So it’s like process of growth, like the growth of a human being.
Are there any social implications to the process of trying to see what’s not obvious?
The interpretation of the work is open to all and it’s upon the art lover to get the message on its own. But I do not want myself to be known solely as a nature activist because of my work, as it is my love for nature and its formation as well as my experiences which I term as a journey where I have learnt to explore nature. (The exhibition is on view till December 9, 2015, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Française de Delhi, 72 Lodhi Estate)
