KOCHI: In innate ability to see the world differently distinguishes an artist from the rest of the world. Reality is more than lines and shapes to them, and between the lines lies the beauty of storytelling. “We call it finding the ‘easter egg’. It’s the devil in the detail that makes all the difference,” quips Malayali artist Reshidev R K, over phone from his pastel-themed home in Portland, Oregon, where he is currently working with American advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy.
The roots of Reshidev’s inspirations, he says, can be found in his hometown — Kannur, the coastal town that hosts the red-clad Theyyam, vast beaches and abundant history. “Kerala architecture is very symmetric. My fixation with texture, pattern and symmetry comes from my observations of buildings, places and things I grew up seeing,” he says. Reshidev has been drawing ever since he was old enough to hold a pencil and he went on to study sculpture at the College of Fine Arts Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. Soon after, he joined as a visualiser at an advertising firm in Bengaluru, where he identified his interest in digital illustration. “Art comes to me organically. Anything you create loses its charm when you do it for the sake of it,” he says.
Reshidev’s works are also an insight into society. Sometimes with a tint of humour, he presents a human conundrum with striking details. Like ‘Elevator’ from the ‘Love - 0, Covid -19’ lockdown series, where a man is seen swimming in his cellphone as an elevator door opens and closes in front of him — just as swiftly as Tinder profiles are swiped this side or that — to represent digital dating during the lockdown. In yet another frame of thought from the series, Reshidev weaves himself into the scene as he shares champagne and dinner with himself.
‘A day in the life of’ is yet another masterpiece for the way it flawlessly delivers the life of a woman of colour surrounded by a child, a dog, a rooster and a butterfly. For this year’s Pride Month, Reshidev crafted a feisty transwoman, her eyeshadow and lipstick beaming the pride flag in sharp contrast to her dark porcelain skin.
It is quite evident that the artist does the finishing touch to his artworks with the proficiency of a sculptor — perfect at every edge. “Do you still make sculptures?” I ask him. “I wish I could. Digital art has made everything easy, but sculpting is a different kind of expression that requires hands-on work and a lot of patience,” he says.
Instagram: @reshidev_rk
ART FOR SOCIETY
Reshidev handles many facets of art — product branding to adoring the wall of Portland’s airport with a meticulous illustration that brings under its fold every beautiful bit of its landscape and life. He also spends a good share of time helping people with it. One of his longest collaborations in this regard has been with the Indian art community The Plated Project (theplatedproject), which offers free meals to the needy for each plate sold. So far, Reshidev has sponsored around 6,000 meals. Recently, he worked with ‘One million breaths for India’, a campaign where Indian restaurants from around the globe came together to serve special meals for $86 — the cost of 10kg of oxygen — which they donated towards relief activities when the country was going through a severe oxygen shortage in the wake of Covid second wave.