Aahaan Tandon

Storied Places - Park Memories

Class of: 2024

Major: Fashion Design BFA

Medium: Photoshop Collage

Faculty: Jeanne Marie Wasilik

Prompt: To find a place that has significance to us personally and create a collage which encompasses the historical past and present of the specific location. Including drawings, past images or any visual representations of the feelings evoked when at the place.

The collage I created was of a park that has a lot of significance to me. Although it is a public place available to all, it’s one that I have many memories with and was discovered at an interesting time in my life.

I decided to take an image of “Dagustu Park” and included its historical significance to the city of Baku as well as what it meant to me. The right side of the piece is a collage of the view that you can see from the park, however of Old Baku. They are newspaper images which I merged together and blended to show what it was like in the past. The paper rip effect shows the transition to the modern park where the “Flame Towers” are very visible. The park is also home to the Martyrs alley honoring those who lost their lives in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I decided to dedicate one tower to this historical event, as well as another tower to the “Eternal Flame” of Baku which is also located in the park.

The last tower is hand drawn and has a pencil connected to show my personal connection to how this park made me appreciate architecture which led me to pursuing arts in the coming years.

Finally, I added personal images of memories I had made at the park and used a map pin to show roughly where the pictures were taken.