The Hindu Business Line : Viva reality

Dr Tania Dearriba Romanidy-Fleischhacker speaks in halting English and, much like her paintings that transcend language, culture and geographical barriers, she found her rhythm of rejoinders and articulation to the myriad questions put to her. Having lived in Chennai for five years, Tania, a Cuban national and wife of a German diplomat, found an outlet for her creativity and long-time passion in the soil of this country. “I am primarily an architecture student, and I just completed my PhD in architecture as well. Painting is something I indulged in on and off, as my grandmother used to paint. I found the time to devote to this art form only after we moved to India. Moreover, life as a diplomat’s wife can get boring at times, as he has long hours at work, and I have a lot of time on my hands,” she said smiling.

Her debut exhibition, titled ‘Precensias’, held recently in Chennai reflected her views on society. Divided into five broad categories — Landscapes, Reflections, Tradition, A Critique of Society and Homage, the paintings were bold in their interpretation and confident in their strokes. “The Homage is probably closest to my heart, as it is based on the poems written by my niece, Libertad Dearriba. She committed suicide when she was 15, and I have tried to interpret parts of her poem in my paintings,” she said.

The arresting painting of a young woman looking at old age, or of the dancer yearning to be free from the “prison of skin”, were particularly interesting, as are her paintings attacking the world that disregards the environment, hungering for power through war and destruction, especially in oil-rich countries. “One of my biggest inspirations is probably Frida Kahlo. Cuba actually has a storehouse of talent, but since people migrate to different countries, they are hardly recognised as Cuban artists,” she said.

Two of her paintings were inspired by India. “The woman staring at the horizon on the beach, where the sun could either be setting or rising, represents the Indian woman to me, while the painting of the fisherman is also inspired from Indian shores.” Given the inherent realism of the paintings, it came as a surprise when Tania said her paintings were not based on something she necessarily saw as against imagined.

“The painting kind of comes alive in my imagination. I don’t look at something and paint it, but I might have seen something that perhaps caught my attention and then it simply manifests in the paintings I work on. Sometimes it is a dream of an image that I paint or sometimes I have an idea and I draw it out. My paintings are my feelings, and it is difficult to really express the process,” she added.

Comparing Indian culture with that of her home country, Tania said what had beguiled her most about India were the different kinds of people she constantly encountered. “The culture of Cuba is very different from that of India. For one, it isn’t as old as India and there are a lot of people here. Indian society too is very different, and I am particularly curious about the caste system here. Even after five years, I failed to understand it, and it amazed me that people here accepted the differences with ease. To express it in a painting would probably be quite tough and challenging,” she mused.

But food is another matter altogether. With a passion for cooking as well, Tania admitted difficulty in getting used to spicy Indian food, though her husband found it “difficult to eat without the pickle!”

But cooking was another cup of tea altogether, and she enjoyed experimenting with different ingredients used in Indian food. “For instance, in Cuban cuisine, cinnamon is used only for sweets, while in India cinnamon is used in most recipes.”

If the noise, traffic and pollution were Tania’s first impressions of India, she has taken with her to Venezuela — her husband’s present posting —the colours, beauty and the diversity of Indian people.

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