Nirveda won at the age of seven. The previous day, her big sister taught her about colours. “If you mix yellow and blue, you get green. That was all I knew. It made me so happy. After that, I enrolled in everything that looked like drawing lessons. I was the last of eight children and although there wasn’t much money around, my parents let me pursue my education at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in South Africa. I fed on the works of William Kentridge and the American abstract expressionists. Then I went to Scotland, to the Glasgow School of Art, where I obtained my Master of Fine Art in 2001. During those years, I was confrontedwith the death of painting. The students and teachers were only interested in concepts, performances, installations, and transitory art. I took on these media that I never used. The experience was liberating. Gradually, I made progress on all fronts.” And in all countries. Nirveda has had many residences in Africa, India, the United States, France, and many exhibitions (Triennale in India in 2005, Contemporary Art Africa in Basel, Switzerland in 2011, Biennale Dak’Art in 2010 and 2012, Bamako Photography Biennale in 2019, Collège des Bernardins in Paris, Musée MAC VAL in Ivry-surSeine in 2016, Cité internationale des arts in Paris in 2020, The Institut Français of Mauritius in 2021). “It is time for me to leave the island if I want to publicise my work more widely. I have to follow this through,” says Nirveda. And of course there are all the future journeys to continue her endless fresco, Continuum. No doubt we will all recognise ourselves in it.
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