Untitled

Exploring the co-existence of the traditional and the contemporary, Ravinder Reddy’s brightly hued and outsized sculptures of women’s heads are ruminations on sexual, religious and cultural identity. The artist’s visual cues emanate from the exquisite idols of Hindu and Buddhist temples in Nepal, while the wide-eyed expressions are influenced by the enameled eyes of cultic images in Nathdwara and Mathura. The artist, however, is equally comfortable referencing global contemporary art practices, including the work of artists like Fernando Botero and Jeff Koons. Reddy’s choice of media also reflects the dichotomies that characterize his practice, combining traditional elements like gold leaf with more contemporary materials like fiberglass and automotive paint.

Bringing together the ancient and the contemporary, and linking temple, kitsch and Pop art, Reddy’s larger than life heads command attention from the viewer and challenge traditional notions of beauty, femininity, and domesticity. As the artist and art historian Gulammohammed Sheikh observed, “For Ravinder, the engagement with full figures served as a route to understanding the head as the epitome of the body. The head then assumed a totally independent entity” (G. Sheikh, Heads and Bodies, Icons and Idols, Bengaluru, 2017, p. 17). With their particular focus on ornamentation, these sculptures draw attention to the widespread societal pressure to conform to particular norms of beauty, and the reverence for and adherence to age-old notions of femininity.