Malayali artist Neeraja Radhakrishnan talks about her peculiar art language

Young Bengaluru based Malayali artist Neeraja Radhakrishnan credits her father, renowned cinematographer late M J Radhakrishnan, for inspiring her to be an artist.
Young Bengaluru based Malayali artist Neeraja Radhakrishnan credits her father, renowned cinematographer late M J Radhakrishnan, for inspiring her to be an artist.
Young Bengaluru based Malayali artist Neeraja Radhakrishnan credits her father, renowned cinematographer late M J Radhakrishnan, for inspiring her to be an artist.

Patterns and intricate lines plunging into a colour burst — this is how Bengaluru based Malayali artist Neeraja Radhakrishnan expresses herself through artworks. The youngster credits her father, renowned cinematographer late M J Radhakrishnan, for inspiring her to be an artist. His versatile image collections including painted glass doors of palaces, and patterns on church walls floored young Neeraja. The 25-year-old is reluctant to classify her artworks as a particular aesthetic or genre.

She prefers to call them ‘colour nation.’ “Colours are a powerful tool. Their principle purpose is to express. They can create illusions, bring out emotions vividly, and most importantly, help you stay focused when you get restless. My entire art is based on colours,” says Neeraja who studied Fashion and Lifestyle Accessory Design in NIFT, Bangalore.

For Neeraja, her potrayal of subjects is a certain escapism. She slips into their fantasy world to lose herself. “I am always trying to figure out concepts — something out of extraordinary, eccentric and different, but at the same time intuitive and relatable,” she says.

The concepts that pique her interest often borrow from multiple elements. The artwork drawn in lines with the spirit bird, is an ode to her journey to Kodaikanal with her friends, and is one of the compositions Neeraja is proud of. 

“I was drawing throughout the journey. The main subject of the art is a beautiful Indian roller bird we came across on our way. On our way back, we saw a tall tree with branches stretching out, and many cranes surrounding it. The visual caught my attention,” explains Neeraja.

Nature plays a big part in her art — animals, plants and people. “Lines intrigue me, not the straight ones. I feel  thsoe are restrictive, and gives me a feeling of being trapped inside a box. My art flows freely,” she adds. Neeraja uses digital, acrylic, and oil mediums.

A lot of her concepts are also inspired by her childhood. The ‘Kaleidoscope’ series is connected to her father and reveals how obsessed she is with patterns. “Each small difference can bring out new patterns and it fits my style as well,” she says. Midnight in my hair, connect with insects and secret garden are a few subjects in the series.

Neeraja, who is now a full-time artist, dabbles with commissioned works as well as free-flowing imagination.  ‘Ancestral myths and bedtime tales’ revolves around her mother and the tales from her childhood that she told Neeraja. “The simple stories have been potrayed based on my understanding. It may bedifferent from what my mother felt, its interesting how one subject can be perceived in many ways,” she says

Instagram: @neerajaaa_

Related Stories

No stories found.
Indulgexpress
www.indulgexpress.com