Divija Diwan
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Prompt: This was the first bridge project. The Prompt - Select a culture and research on it based on the prompts given. Research and explore some design concepts. Make a moodboard on it. Do sketches, 3D models and come up with a final design. Make a cultural mask based on your research and explorations.
For this project I selected the Vedic Civilisation which was based in India. While doing the research I focused a lot on factors of beauty at that time. I had read briefly about this time period in school but never in detail about the dressing, clothing. During this time women just wrapped around a sari in a way to cover their whole body because stitching was not used and they did not even wear a blouse. They focused a lot on using gold, silver ornaments which also signified the wealth of that family. With the jewellery they also used a lot of flowers and plants when they dressed up believing a lot in natural beauty. They also had certain symbols introduced like the Swastik, Kalash, Lotus signifying purity, strength and good, new beginning. Colours were also given different meanings. Out of them one which disturbed me a lot was giving black significance of impurity. When I started conceptualising my design I kept these factors in mind and tried to showcase them through my materials and processes. I made the basic structure in the shape of a “Shankh” which is an instrument played before new beginnings. I filled it with the important symbols. I attached this to a tiara and added flowers and beads. I used gold wire and beads to showcase the importance of ornaments and the black wire of the shankh to question the meaning just given to black. I covered parts of the black with rope like the they did with the “Sari”. Overall I wanted this mask to showcase these symbols and also make it wearable.