- Son Lux
"I am drawn to absurdity as a way of being."
You hear something like that and you don't want to waste a second. Let's get straight into it, shall we? Meet Roy Varghese, who has been a graphic designer and artist for most of his life. And ever since I have known him, been absurd. I wanted to find out more about what makes him so "kirk"( rough translation- quirky in Tamil) , and so we sat down in his lovely home and chatted over some delicious farinata, salad, biriyani and chai.
Okay, let's get this out of the way. I have a cat phobia. And he has cats. At one point I had jumped on top of his sofa shrieking, as Bear the cat sauntered by, while he stood around grinning and clicking pictures. I haven't seen those pictures yet but I have no doubt that they will surface at the right time. So that's that. Oh wait, he just sent me this one titled Komalitharam( roughly translates to clown behaviour in Malayalam, a mother tongue we share). Ah well. And so it begins.
Back to Roy. Trained as a graphic designer, he runs a small studio with his lovely wife Arati, and is currently in a transition phase of his career. They are in the process of putting together a retreat space around Bangalore. At the moment they are fretting over the agent who hasn't called back for the last couple of weeks, and so they were chasing the agent's brother-in-law in the hope of some news, who has casually told them, "He will call back at some point." And so they wait. Ah well, all part of the joyful process of procuring land in India.
Anyway, that aside, lunch devoured, and the cats safely in their corner, Roy and I finally sat down to find out why he loves the absurd. Or maybe start with when he started drawing and why. Or maybe walk around his studio and click pictures of his quirky art. Okay maybe a little of it all. I started with taking pictures of this series below, called "Huemans" that he created on postcards (remember them?) for an exhibition.
When I asked him if he remembers that momentous occasion when he first drew, he rather nonchalantly says, "I have been drawing all my life". More realistically, it probably started with those art classes in school that we all had. He always thought of it as a hobby and never imagined that he would ever make a living out of it. Neither of his parents are artists so this came out of nowhere. No genes at play here.
He remembers sticking pieces of paper inside his geometry box and drawing on it, doodling on notebooks and textbooks, and taking part in art competitions. But those art competitions were perhaps the first indication that he wasn't going to be a conventional artist. He could never draw standard scenery. I mean, that's all I could ever draw, that too barely- those mountains in the horizon, that tiny stream, one tree, one house with a door and 2 windows, and a gate sometimes. It was very clear that I was never going to be an artist.
Roy on the other hand sounds like he could draw in his sleep. But those sunset scenes, not for him. Quirky, unconventional, and humorous, much more him. In his own words,
"I like going into a slightly nonsensical space. It's more fun coz when I am serious I am depressing. I like being silly."
That's a fairly high degree of self-awareness I thought. But we aren't talking silly for the sake of being silly. He sketches every day, it is a part of his self-care routine. So was the sketching a way of expressing his emotional state? He thoughtfully says, "It is a form of expression yes, but I don't do realistic art, so it's not that I am drawing exactly what I am feeling. I like to juxtapose reality with the nonsensical, but that seems to happen more subconsciously". In a really powerful statement, he says,
"I like to explore the zone between what is real and unfunny, and what is unreal and funny. It's an ambiguous space where one can suspend all judgement."
It's a fine line, he admits. But it is this ambiguity that he is most comfortable with and from where he creates all his art. He has extended his drawings to T-shirts, bags, murals, signage and they all have that quintessential kirk quality, that forces you to suspend belief for a moment, to look again, allow your brain to do some gymnastics and eventually more often than not, make you chuckle.
An early passion was repurposing things. He talks fondly of his childhood partner-in-creative-crime, one of his closest friends in the neighbourhood. They would hang out as 10-11 year olds, to do creative projects together. There was this one time that a coconut tree was felled at home, and they went on a mission to use every part of the tree. They painted on the coconut shells, made stools out of the trunk and generally made sure that every part of the tree was useful. One of my favourite repurposing projects that he has been doing for decades, has been what he calls "Notebooks with a past-life". He learnt how to bind books in his late teens, and he creates these little notepads using old paper, leftover fabric and packaging box cardboard. He has been gifting these little books to all his friends and even selling them at exhibitions.
As you flip through the pages of these books, you just never know what you might find; A friend's psychology notes, his dad's cancer diagnosis, some old government document. Each notebook is a treasure trove of randomness. And he has set himself the challenge of never repeating a design on a notebook. There seems to be no end to his absurdity, thankfully.
I wanted to know a little more about his "formal" creative education. His official design journey started with design school in Bangalore. This was after completing a degree in management. His parents were very supportive of the switch having themselves made similar shifts. His mother switched from Science to English literature and his dad from Law to Social work and HR. Just as well for him, because he came alive when he started to train formally in what came naturally to him.
He was hungry and design school opened his mind up and allowed him to fully explore not just his talents, but also his thinking process. The faculty, his classmates, the space, the projects, all of it provided the fodder he needed. His was the first batch which allowed for plenty of experimentation, something he is grateful for.
His grad school project combined two of his favourite activities- walking and exploring architecture. He loves walking through neighbourhoods, old parts of a city, taking pictures of old houses and buildings. His project was an urban walk of Bangalore using churches as an anchor. His love for architecture also shows in the home he has created with his wife but the house is his wife's story so I will tell you about it after I have had a firefly chat with her. Soon, she has promised.
He narrates a story about this one time in grad school. He was working on a project with this girl, and she was apparently driving him nuts. So in classic Roy style, he said to her," You are like a drill boring through my head!" About 4 years later, they were married. Chuckle. On his humour, he once told his 2/3 year old niece that the ceiling fan she was looking at was actually a cow. Just. His sister found out and I don't think she was amused. He on the other hand was laughing his head off. And honestly, so was I.
After having lived in Bangalore pretty much all his life, he felt the need for change and Sri Lanka gave him that. He landed up in Colombo with a portfolio and stayed for 3.5 years doing advertising. While he didn't like the experience of "churning out" creativity, he also acknowledges that he would have otherwise never had the opportunity to work on the things he did. At the very least he came out of it knowing what he didn't want to do, which in a creative journey is as important as knowing what you love doing.
He came back from Sri Lanka and set up a small design studio with his wife. They wanted to keep it small with no employees and it has remained that way till date. It gives them the flexibility to do the work they want, with the people they want to work with. To their satisfaction, they have done some varied and meaningful work with clients who have also valued design. Some of these are long standing relationships that began during the beginnings of the brand. He says,
"It's nice to grow something together."
How true. One of the brands they were associated with since it's early days is Plantation house, an apparel brand working with naturally dyed, handloom fabric and "fashioned with values that work across contours of seasons and styles”. The photograph below has also been taken by Roy. The Creative School in Bangalore is a brand they have worked on since its inception. And not leaving tech behind, they helped create "Building Blocks", a free open source math learning and practice app for Akshara foundation.
Some of his more casual interests are photography and lighting for theatrical productions. While he occasionally does photography professionally, it is a more natural free flowing expression for him. It is his work in lighting that reveals something more of his inner creative process.
He is part of the backstage crew for his wife's Hindustani classical group, Sunaad. More on that when I speak with her. How did the sudden interest in lighting come about, I ask. He had dabbled with helping at cultural events in college. But he distinctly remembers that when attention was drawn to him, he would freeze. He preferred doing things quietly, in the background. Lighting a live event gives him the perfect opportunity to do so. But like everything else he does, there is a meditative quality even in turning on a switch, it seems. He says.
"The fact that it is live means that you have to be really present. There is no time for fear when you have to be in the moment. Doing anything live helps you do that."
For the last decade or so, he has also been dabbling with movement. He was serendipitously introduced to a dance routine called 5 rhythms a few years ago and he felt naturally drawn to it. He has always considered dancing as alien to himself. But there was something about this alternate form of movement that allowed him to explore his natural rhythm without really trying to dance, or to learn steps or to even think of himself as a dancer. Instead, he just allowed his body to loosen up and explore what he could do with it.
In a recent long stay in Goa, he ended up spending a lot of time dancing at various dj and live gigs, and while being in the sea, and he found it liberating. I can only imagine. It is another one of his self-care routines, to find a way to move his body every day, be it yoga or just simply moving to music in his studio.
"I like sequencing music and creating a rhythm."
This sense of rhythm is evident in everything he does. He believes that everything you do is interconnected- the way you live, what you eat, the work you do, the clothes you wear, it all stems from the same inner space. And he has been living this way for a while now, trying to make all parts of himself and his life more seamless. He has simplified his life, slowed down a lot and in general, seems to have found a rhythm that works for him.
One of the things that he and Arati noticed was this certain something that happened for them when they had people over. When friends, friends of friends, a stranger there, a cat or two here, came together in their space, there seemed to be something special that is created for themselves (and they hope for others too), through conversation, through art, through food, through music and dance. I can vouch for that. On one of these evenings, many years ago, that old neighbourhood friend walked in and began drawing a mural in the house. Just like that. Over food, music and chatter, we watched him bring the space alive with his art. He created a bit of magic that night for all of us.
And so, "Can we extend the way we live to a larger space, for a wider audience?", was a question they found themselves asking. And that's how this idea for a retreat space was born.He says,
"We have all gone through so many transformations but it's something that is rarely seen. Once you start working, you rarely get a chance to completely reconsider your life and choices, to recalibrate in any way. This space will hopefully allow you to do that."
His biggest anxiety currently? "How am I going to make this transition from something I have trained in to something I don't have a clue about." That he is attempting it, is an act of courage that I don't think even he realizes. He loves doing anything physical for the house, like basic plumbing, electrical work, carpentry. So he is slowly getting quite excited about creating this new space. He describes his current state as a process of marination. I for one can't wait to see what he cooks on the other side.
I asked him what the soundtrack of his life would be and he looked at me strangely. Instead he simply chose a song that he listens to most often these days. "This is a life" by Son Lux. It could have well, been the soundtrack of his life, if you ask me. Have a listen here:
This one time, when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life, he showed up at Koshy's for a coffee, with this piece of art. He didn't say much else, he didn't need to. And this art has followed me to every city and every country I have lived in.
I have been witness to his quirk and his art since we were 17 years old. I have always wondered how his illustration style has remained so consistent over the years. It comes naturally to him, he says, but I realised that it wasn't so much about the form as much as it was perhaps about telling himself and the world not to take life so damn seriously. To explore the silliness that is a part of all of us. That when life gets heavy, which it so often does, quirkiness could well be a way to lighten the load. That is what has truly remained consistent.
The chat ended with us reminiscing over many mad times full of kirk and silliness. May we all have some of that.
You can follow his work here:
https://oyeroy.tumblr.com
Instagram handle: eyeglew
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