Creative Project #5
The readings from Week 6 about mosque décor and the relation of nature to the interior decoration inspired this project. Many of the authors discuss the use of nature as inspiration for mosques and mosque ornamentation, particularly arabesques. While we discussed the shortcomings of some of these scholars, especially with regard to their Orientalist views, I was still inspired to see nature in the forms of the ornamentation, particularly the mosaics.
I decided to create my own “mosaic” inspired by nature. My design is made up quite literally of nature. I took high-resolution photographs of various things in nature – the sky, the grass, leaves, flowers, etc. – and used those photos as the “tile pieces” for my design. Then, I found an inspiring work and imitated its forms in a final mosaic design. The green and white forms are arabesques inspired by nature, with flower-leaf like shapes at certain points throughout their forms. The shape at the bottom was made out of the image of a flower and was abstractly based on that flower’s form.
Ultimately with the end result, it proved hard to capture the depth of the work and the images without viewing the piece in person. However, if you look closely at the green parts, you can discern the outlines of leaves within the arabesques.
Finally, though I was not able to attend the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was able to review the catalogue with Professor Asani recently. I particularly loved the mihrab from Isfahan that is installed in the Iranian wing. The shapes above the pointed arch in this mihrab inspired my final design for my “mosaic”.
