Possible Mauritian Art as a Dissertation

Art and Mauritius, I recently went to Mauritius on holiday with my girlfriend, for me it was a chance to see family I haven't seen in years and to re-aquaint my self with the country of my mother's birth. For my girlfriend it gave her an extra insight into me.
One of the justifications I gave for my trip was that I would investigate the art scene and the new art school in Mauritius . I met a Mauritian artist, Krishna Luchoomun, 2 years ago. He had a residency as an overseas artist at the Gasworks a community gallery in Oval, at the time he was talking about playing a founding role in said school.

He seemed very nice more of a statesman than an artist. The work he was exhibiting seemed a little naïve, like a community participation art project, very much passe to a London eye, but I did think about how it might seem from a foreign perspective. What I thought of as cliché such as red buses and telephone boxes are exotic and iconic to a Mauritian especially one who, unlike my family, has not either lived here in London or visited countless times over the years.

I later looked in to his background and he studied art in the USSR pre the fall of the iron curtain. This gave him a very different outlook from the Western European and US arts educated artists I am used to. So

I haven't seen the artists work from the organisation that Krishna has been setting up but I did get to look at some art while I was in Mauritius.

I arrived with my own prejudices particularly towards 'tourist' art, because all I had ever seen of the Mauritian art and handicrafts was hollowed out porcupine fish, minature ships and dodo t-shirts. I actually have bought all of these at one stage or another so it is a little hypocritical, but I did. I was worried that all the painting would be stylised beach scenes and that pop art and conceptualism would have missed Mauritius. It wasn't that I thought it would be backwards but I was worried that the work ethic particularly of those like myself of Indian origin would be so strong that there would be no room for art aimed at Mauritians.