Month: December 2017

Artist Case Study 1: Antoni Gaudi

After the one-on-one tutorial with Jonathan I was left with plenty of food for thought. One of the ideas that sprung up was that of using trivial, everyday objects to illustrate a deeper narrative. I was inspired by Katherine Mansfield’s writing, where she uses mundane situations and objects to describe a character’s complex thought process. And Jonathan pointed out multiple artists who do the same, for example Jane Wildgoose who has an entire library of objects. Ultimately, it led me to create this piece: When I discussed this piece in the last group critique of the term, Steph said it …

Experiment # 3: Acrylic pour painting

Experiment # 3: Acrylic pour painting

The biggest dilemma I was left with at the end of experiment 1 and 2 was how to incorporate canvas and painting into the idea of mosaics and pieced-together sculptures. When I ran into a pour painting video online, the cells that emerge reminded me of the bits and pieces that comprise a mosaic and it gave me the idea of trying to create a mosaic using paint. And that’s how I came to experiment 3. Experiment 3 will likely be a very long process of trial and error followed by practice as I see what combinations do or do …

Community project Case Study 1: Confessions

Part of my (as yet unwritten) project proposal is that I want to initiate a public participatory art project in Karachi and/or Jeddah as part of my interest in using art to capture narratives. And you know what they say, “everything that can be invented, has been invented” which, for me, translates into: all ideas stem from existing ideas. So what better way to brainstorm about my own community art project ideas than by examining past and current projects initiated by other artists? Here’s case study no.1: Candy Chang’s project, “Confessions”. Now this project is something I literally stumbled onto …

Experiment # 2: It’s what they whisper

Experiment # 2: It’s what they whisper

My first tutorial left me feeling interested in how objects could spin a narrative. That week, I decided to experiment with water and glass paints to marble porcelain dishes and mugs and see what kind of art it would create. Here’s the video of the whole process: At that time I added the touches of gold simply because they felt right when I was creating the pieces. But later, I felt they reminded me of ‘Kintsugi’, the Japanese art of mending pottery using gold instead of throwing the broken pieces away. It kind of emphasizes the breakage and subsequent repair …

Experiment # 1: I capture the desert

I haven’t concretely written down my project proposal yet, but brainstorming and some research has yielded the following answers about what I am seem to be seeking: I want to build simultaneous narratives to explore the ‘slice of life’ story of an absent protagonist. I want my art to reflect the ‘stream of consciousness’ or ongoing story in the inner mind’. I want to unlock the narrative potential of everyday objects and materials, and their embedded cultural associations. I am inspired by the ongoing dialogue between art and the audience in this digital era, and the potential of the audience …