The art show encapsulated intrinsic human emotions and celebrated feelings of conflict and confusion. This series also depicted how humans use their personalities to contend with love, loss, boundaries, truth, balance, introspection, and perspective.
This is said to be the first serious art show on Instagram and included seven IGTV videos, eight reels, 14 carousel posts, and three Instagram live sessions.
Eye Candy, which refers to the collection of Raghava KK’s latest art creations, explored seven topics through three key ideas – Side A, Side B, and Play. ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’ depicted the contrasting sides of an emotion that can achieve resolution only through ‘Play’. The exhibition is said to have been conceptualized to convey Raghava’s philosophy, which is: Art has transcendent powers that can help create humanity’s collective future.
In order to make “serious art” accessible to a younger audience through a medium they can understand, Raghava and Anto decided to launch the show on Instagram.
The idea to create an exhibition in this manner arose from their own issues, with art being too exclusive and mostly unapproachable. The duo wanted high art ideals to be made more accessible and relevant to the youth, through in-depth, reflective discussions about the role of art in common people’s lives.
In 2020, the art world (the whole world, actually) had come to a grinding stop, and artists like Raghava turned to alternate avenues to exhibit and connect with their audiences. Raghava said, “The one word that came to my mind during these difficult times was ‘relevance’. And because in times like now, the digital world takes precedence over the real, establishing a connection between the physical and the digital world seemed like the right thing to do. So, amidst this entire COVID mayhem, I called up my friend Anto Philip and told him that for my 25 years of being an artist and my 40th Birthday in October 2020, I would like to launch an art piece on Instagram that would make art feel more relevant to the youth of the world. Thus, in collaboration with Anto and Under25 Studios, Eye Candy was born.”
“Raghava and I are like little kids in candy land whenever we start to discuss any idea, I never know how our conversations start or how they end but all I can confidently say is that it is those conversations that gave birth to this lovely collaboration between Under 25 Studios and Raghava KK. We reimagined every possible construct around the world of art and digital storytelling, the idea was to use Instagram as our venue for the Art Exhibition and each piece depicts two sides of a concept highlighting the importance of playing between the two sides to find one's unique personality,” says Anto Philip.
Raghava KK’s artworks have garnered attention and appreciation from distinguished people across the world, including Benazir Bhutto, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan, Sachin Tendulkar, Jeff Bezos, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Paul Simon, and Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco.
The artist has also been showcased on platforms like TED Talks, National Geographic Headquarters, TEDMED, Deutsche Welle, the Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing at the United Nations Headquarters, among others.
After months of work, Eye Candy went live on Instagram, where it crossed over 100k views for seven episodes.