Beachcomber Magazine 04

hatching strange plants in her watercolour paintings. She travelled to London with her installation Luminous Life in which the light intensifies as you approach the panels of raffia canvas prints, evoking her nostalgia for the radiant, incandescent landscapes of Mauritius. She plants domes made of fragile bamboo or of steel here, there and everywhere, on which she projects her prophetic animations as if she were some kind of environmental missionary. Technicolour coral in the Murmure des Fleurs dances a farandole, defying bleaching and death. Strange Interactive Bio Instruments plugged into her heartbeat tap on ravanne drums, accompanied by a violinist. Videos explode in her fingers, bringing to life bouncy pixels that plunge, full of light, into idyllic oceans. SPOKESPERSON FOR LIFE ITSELF Since the start of the year, Kim has been teaching contemporary art at the Nantes école supérieure d’architecture on its Mauritian campus in Flic en Flac. However, the major challenge that Kim faces following her appointment as artistic director of the Indian Ocean Games opening ceremony in July, is to work out how to juggle software and watercolours to create an hour-long larger- than-life display that will dazzle neighbouring islanders, fellow activists, ecologists and athletes. The display is set to feature the legendary figures in an ocean that is teemingwith talent and the aspirations of its many indigenous peoples. Kim is a fighter for whom Mauritius is a microcosm where many global problems can be confronted head-on, understood and brought to light. Her work is less about chaotic multiculturalism and more about harmonious growth, shifting identities and uncertain futures on an island that for her has become a laboratory for creating another future.  Above: Strange flowers, far removed from the bleached coral, grow on the ocean bed where rays fly, reinvigorated by the artist’s vision. Right: The environmental warrior resting in a South-American hammock under an Opuntia cochenillifera cactus. Ci-dessus : Des fleurs étranges, loin des coraux blanchis, poussent au fond d’un océan où volent les raies, ragaillardies par la vision de l’artiste. À droite : Le repos de la guerrière écologique dans un hamac venu d’Amérique du Sud sous un cactus Opuntia cochenillifera.  PAINTING THE ART OF ART 64