Narrative in Art Spaces

With the beginning of the new year and the new courses that happen at school, I've decided to put up parts of my work from this course. Right now working on a project - Narrative as Drivers - we got to choose a space in the campus, and come up with our story(characters, plots and all that storytelling jazz), and finally set up an installation - creating (or recreating) an experience for an audience or participant.

In this post, I'm putting up some of my initial sketches for my running project, and with the help of dearest joos, who has been helping my *word* my overly-hyper thoughts - the introduction of the story!

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It is a midsummer morning, in the forest of eternity,
The thrushes whistle, they go too-tee-twee.
The winds whisper with the leaves, matters completely hush-hush
The leaves themselves hear the news and jump down in a rush.

It is a sad death for the leaves, upon the ground.
They shrivel and die, to pass from reality without a sound.
None live to tell a tale. oh! What tales they could tell!
About scandals in the flora; about gossips in the jungle.

But wait! Hark! A faint rustle like the final wheeze of an old geezer. What is this? A lone green traveler, caught in the undergrowth amidst the roots! A hardy leaf, surely, for he has defeated fate. His certain death seems like a bad joke now, in his comfortable couch near the great roots.

Accustomed as they are to the dry, brown, crisp corpses of the leaves, the roots shudder mildly at the sight of the green body waving peacefully in the breeze. A hushed conference ensues among the old veterans, a dissemination of the recent catclysmic event - the Descent of the Leaf.

"Who are you?" asks the Eldest of them all with distaste. The Eldest frowns, his shriveled body wrinkling further.

"Who are you?" ask the young roots, with awe and delight. Their ends quiver with anticipation.

"Hear me, elders," begins the leaf. "Hear me, oh old ones. I come from above, from the world of juicy red fruits and green comrades. From the world of prosperity, I have come down now, to experience life in the nether regions. You may call me Leaf."

"Humbug!" cries the Eldest. "Everyone knows there is nothing beyond the green skies!"

"Tell us more!" cry the little ones, angry at the old timer.

"The green sky is my home, Grand One! And there are worlds that you know not. There is a world of mad old tree trunks too proud to talk. A world of cheery leaves that socialize with the breeze. There are worlds beyond your comprehension. Worlds beyond your reach."

"Dung and more hogwash!" shouts the Eldest. But the shouts falter with the jubiliant cries of the younglings.

"A story!" The young ones huddle around Leaf, while the Eldest watches from a distance. "Tell us about the worlds!"

"No. Not one story but nine. Not one life but nine." The young ones cheer at the annoucement while the Eldest frowns further. Bad business.

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Initial sketches of the characters...

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Below is the mood board I made to help visualise the concept better - Images from various artists and designers - majorly from India : credits roll - Raghunandan K., Kavitha Arvind (a personal fav.), Nitin Utge, Diya Shankardass, Indophile, Manish Arora, Aarohi Singh)