Communicative Shapes
Heat, Honks and Flamingos
Within just five minutes of my arrival at the Pralhadnagar Junction, I found myself soaking in sweat. While I was graced to be pardoned from the harsh afternoon sunlight with the clouds hovering in the sky, the heat and the humidity got to me. Ahmedabad, a business-driven city, saw that its citizens were determined to make it to work even if the world was ending in a pandemic. This was reflected by a moving traffic that produced a cacophony with honking vehicles roaring in the middle of the day.
What was interesting was the roundabout with the Flamingos on it. It seemed disconnected from all the traffic and the noise.
Focusing on it gave off a different kind of vibe. For a second, I felt as though I was escaping the chaotic surroundings that I was within.
Standing at the intersection for about fifteen minutes I realised that I saw hope.
Hope. Even though the world is seeing a gloomy time, people here felt above it. While there were some of the people who weren’t necessarily following the social distancing norms which meant the place was unsafe, there was definitely something that the intersection as such possessed. Energy. Yes it was chaotic, but at the same time it was dynamic. This was the energy and the emotion that the world had lost for the past few months. It reminded me that there was also the possibility of viewing situations in a positive manner.
Within the parameters of the intersection you could see glimpses of the Indian culture with the fruit stands and make-shift pan stores made on a rickshaw.
Heat, Honks, Flamingos AND well… Sunlight
This time it was about 2 pm when I reached the intersection. The temperature was at it’s usual: sweat-worthily high and immensely annoying. However, added to this heat was it’s daunting partner-in-crime: harsh SUNLIGHT!
After calming the frustration out of me, I started noticing differences and the similarities between my first and my second visit. For starters, I realised that the while the traffic on the street (in terms of cars) was the same, the number of people off it was considerably lower. I wondered whether that was because of me going to the place on a different time of day or the fact that it was Monday. Sadly enough, my mother called and I had to leave. She yelled at me for not staying home with corona raging in the city. I guess she didn’t understand what my priorities were: Carnegie Mellon University > My Life. While I didn’t spend time creating sketches, I took a few mental notes before retreating to my lair. This time I focused a little bit more on the Flamingos. They were really interesting in the context of the whole intersection. I realised that they had a huge role in setting the mood of the area. I found the statue of the flamingos to bring in humour. Its placement was so unorthodox in this busy part of the town that it subtly felt funny.
The White Relief
The first word that comes to my mind after looking at this relief is SHABBY. And the second would be rushed. Well the latter is definitely true. After carelessly cutting myself and dropping blood on my first relief, I had to rush to finish my relief on time. While doing the project, I realised the lacking of planning. Before I started the work, it would have made sense to decide what layer each of the object would be on. This is because layering is one of the main elements of the piece that gave it depth and definition. Furthermore, I realised the importance of choosing what details to add and what details to leave out because that is also an integral decision that decides the success of the final piece.
The White Relief: Redoing it
It was obvious that I needed to redo the cutwork all over again. And I could already feel my fingers turn red with just the thought of it. Furthermore, there was this feeling that I had about the composition that I didn’t like. It wasn’t working for me. I felt that the other photo I had taken managed to better express the intersection in its entirety and the mood as well. This time however I felt that it would make much more sense to plan the work first. So I came up with layers that I had to cut and paste the objects in. Here’s how my second white relief turned out to be.
There was an obvious improvement in the overall craftsmanship of the piece. I liked how the picture and the composition worked in conjunction with each other. I felt that there was a better understanding of perspective as well within this second piece that I made. However, it definitely needs some more work. I believe that I may redo my redo. I feel that I need to learn how to use my adhesive better. There were a lot of problems because of that.
The Greyscale version
Within the greyscale version we were asked to recreate our intersections with different shades of grey. We had to keep in mind the effect that values have on the depth of the composition. Within this piece, I believe that I have managed to capture the depth well, however the overall craftsmanship definitely needs to be improved. One thing I struggled with was that I had a limited number of values to work with since I didn’t have the card-stock given in the design kit. So I actually printed the grey that was on the trees on printer paper. Also my black paper was extremely thick and I had to work really hard to get the small details in them. The feedback that I got from my peers was the same: I had to work on my overall craftsmanship. Also the flamingos did not actually look like flamingos. So I believe that I may have to redo this one as well. After looking at the work from the whole class, I realised the impact of choosing the right shade of grey for the right object. This is because it played an important role in defining the depth of the piece.
The Greyscale with Colour version
In this exercise we were asked to recreate the greyscale version. However, this time we were also asked to add just one colour to the piece. This was interesting because the choice of colour required a lot of thought. What was more difficult to decide was where to place that colour in order to successfully express my feelings in response to the intersection.
After thinking about it, the statue of the flamingos was the main distinctive factor of my intersection. I honestly felt that it was integral in defining the mood and the atmosphere of my intersection. When I was thinking about this, an idiom popped up into my mind: TICKLED PINK! It made perfect sense with the humour that I was talking about earlier. So I printed out the baby pink colour and cut my flamingos with it. I thought that by adding the pink in the headlights of the vehicles would better express the mood that I was trying to portray.
Unfortunately this decision of mine was criticised in class by my peers. And it actually made sense: the pink in the headlights was complicating the values in my piece. I was also asked to think about the values of the grey a bit. I reflected on it and I realised that the gradient of the shades was too steep. And this was true about the greyscale version as well. I should probably change the the shade between the black and the light grey to add a little more definition to the depth. Does this mean that I have to redo all of my pieces?!
Redoing all of the pieces
As you can see, I redid all of my pieces. I am glad I did it. You can see the improvement in the overall craftsmanship. I took into account all of the critique that was given to my work by the professors and my peers.
Final Reflection
I have learnt through this the importance of composition and how values can play a major role in showing the depth of an image. Furthermore I learned the importance of planning before doing the work and also I learnt how to reflect on my work. I realised the importance of choosing what details to add and what details to leave behind. I learnt how that can have an impact on the final piece. I learnt NOT to procrastinate :).
