EVERYDAY GODS G.
RAVINDER REDDY INTERVIEW
Rajesh Punj
The sixteenth-century Italian soldier and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini asserted that ‘the art of sculpture was at least seven times greater than any other, (because) a statue of true sculpture ought to have seven points of view, which ought all to boast equal excellence.’ Such an elevation of the physical arts appears to play into the hands of South Indian artist G. Ravinder Reddy; whose brightly coloured busts of traditional women, have to be experienced ‘in-the-round’ – as the simple almost becomes sacrosanct. As he well explains, “for me transient emotions and feelings do not play any role in the creation of the object. I am concerned with forms that are universally understood.”And by removing so much of the individual from a work, Reddy appears to revel in the subsequent simplicity of the situation, as he removes entirely any sense of personality or portraiture from his monuments to mankind. Seeking instead to mould his busts into these garishly coloured totem pole like faces. As he intends they speak for a culture of devoted and devotional women across the subcontinent.
Normally title the work to allow for an open-ended interpretation for the viewer. And the spectator, based on his background, connects with and interprets the object in front of him, in whichever they choose. My effort ends when the viewer stands in front of the sculpture.
While Cellini addressed the significance of the individual, at a time when courters and canons of mathematics and science were being rewarded with their own statues, Reddy aligns himself with everyday individuals, who he sees as at the service of one another. Emphasising how they are deserving of his attention, and of their acknowledgement by the arts. These brightly coloured busts have become the artist’s signature works, that for their scale and colour,are as aesthetically enthralling as anything attached to the country’s pyramided temples. The alchemy of his work is that whereas religious icons facilitate our faith, Reddy’s sculptures are celebrations of the commonplaceness of the communities of women who make-up India’s population. Seeing beauty as not entirely exclusive to Indian films and popular pageants, but manifest as a devotion to the elegance and anatomy of ordinariness, as he himself explains, “beauty is not possible for me. Over the centuries the concept of beauty keeps changing. Every region, every culture, every continent has a different concept of beauty. I have never tried to capture beauty. Beauty is indefinable. I try to put volumes, concave and convex shapes, and forms into meaningful ways to build sculptures. And to add texture and colour to make a meaningful image for the onlooker.”
My inspiration is derived from life itself. My work is a celebration of life and the common man is a strong element.We are living and breathing our surroundings. Knowingly or unknowingly, everything affects our thinking and actions. None of us lives in isolation, and my works are a reflection of the things I do or observe from where I live. My works manifest into a religion, and reflect contemporary culture subconsciously.
Reddy’s finessed figures have for their luminosity become instantly recognisable to audiences outside of the sub-continent,as much as they are thoroughly real to Indians, for his concentration on the castes and creeds of the southern state of Hyderabad. Successfully managing to immortalise the traditions and contemporary tendencies of generations of women who have cultured India into a self-sustaining country. Employing commonplace materials, including car paints and clay, Reddy rewards himself with the task of transforming hissizable sculptures into idols to the ordinary individual. Espoused by a politics to the common man, Reddy’s work is a reminder of how important it is to embrace the country’s social and cultural character, as much as the influx of the modern world.
