The Love Story of the Taj Mahal

This pendant was inspired by a postcard from 1879 of The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, which is indisputably the most famous example of Mughal architecture. It is known as one of the great wonders of the world and is a supreme temple of love, still standing gracefully on the Yamuna River. Not only is it a monument of love but also entails endless curiosity and legend.

Emperor Shan Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his favorite and beloved wife Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. Mumtaz was not just a beautiful woman with whom Shan Jahan was in love; she was his helpmate, the anchor. He was dependant on Mumtaz and as long as she was alive, he was completely devoted to her and neglected all his other wives. Aminial Qazvini, one of his official chroniclers, writes it

“ He did not feel towards the others, one-thousand the part of the affection that he did for her late majesty, and he never allowed her to be separated from him whether at home or aboard”

Construction of the Taj Mahal began in 1623 and was completed sixteen years later. Historian Peter Mundy, who visited the site in the early stages of construction writes “ gold and silver were esteemed common metal, and marble but ordinary stone,” nothing but the best was good enough for Shan Jahan, who was known for his love of perfect symmetry and meticulous design.

There have always been some beliefs and myths associated to the famous monument, legend has it that Shan Jahan wanted to build another Taj Mahal directly opposite the Yamuna for himself, it was to be an exact mirror image of the White Taj Mahal, identical in everyway, expect it would be made out of Black Marble. The two buildings were to be connected by a silver bridge across the river, allowing the lovers to be together forever. The origin of this legend is unknown and may simply be a poetic embellishment of the dramatic life of a historical figure. The concept behind the design of this necklace focuses on the love between Shan Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, completing the legend of the Black Taj Mahal. The two small round pieces are identical to the main dome of the Taj Mahal, yet split in the middle, one representing Shan Jahan in the black and Mumtaz in the white. The two pieces are made of marble from India and sterling silver wire connects them together.

Three Opposites

These objects were inspired by the word ‘vessel’ - 1 a fishing vessel boat, ship, craft, watercraft; literary bark/barque. 2 pour the mixture into a heatproof vessel container, receptacle; basin, bowl, pan, pot; urn, tank, cask, barrel, drum, vat. The word vessel can mean many different things, yet for me I begin to think of organic forms, textures and shapes. I find that natural objects such as nuts seeds and pods are vessels from the earth, with a sense of poetry and beauty. They are able to tell a story from the earth with new life and continue the growth of nature.

The development of my ideas and designs began by looking at the work of Australian artist Marion Borgelt as her works illustrate her interests in art and nature, “ In my own work I seek to explore the power of design and symbolism through the use familiar, often ancient elements and shapes,” her recent work is sophisticated, her images simple and understated, alluding to the organic environment and primal instincts. It is these aspects of Borgelt’s work in which I wanted to incorporate into to my work. These vessels suggest a strangely organic form yet through the use of parrell lines and the formal imagery of the dome something completely unusual is created.

The Butterfly Ring

We all start as caterpillars but we slowly grow until one day we are butterflies

The Butterfly Ring is inspired by beauty that treasures the passage of time. The word Sabi refers to the patina of age, the concept that changes due to use an object more beautiful and valuable. Objects or constructions created from organic materials and used in daily life are of course beautiful when they are brand new. Appreciation of Sabi confirms the natural cycle of organic life – that what is created from the earth finally returns to the earth and that nothing is ever complete. Sabi is true to the natural cycle of birth and rebirth. It is for this reason that I decided to explore the symmetrical shape of a butterfly and its natural cycle of life. One of the most interesting things about butterflies is their unique life cycle. When butterfly changes from a slow-moving fat caterpillar to a colorful winged, beautiful flying creature, one of nature’s most magical events occurs. The Butterfly Ring is made of 2mm thick sterling silver, which is highly polished. This gives the suggestion of the colours found on a real butterfly as the scales on their wings consist of particularly thin or transparent lamellas.

Proposal For Hidden Networks by George!

FORMAL DESCRIPTION

The lighting installation is to be installed in Rieby Place, which is positioned between Macquarie Place and Pitt Street. It consists of two wall screens, which are to be positioned against the two building facades facing the laneway. Each screen will be approximately 3 meters in height and 70 meters in length. The screens are to run parallel along the laneway and bend around the façade of each of the buildings. The position of the screen will be at the lower end of the laneway, beginning at the intersection of Pitt Street and Reiby Place, as this end of the laneway has a higher rate of pedestrians and traffic. It also has natural sunlight throughout the entire day making it a lighter, more inviting space. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, which casts a shadow on the north side of the laneway. This will affect the screens creating a natural environment that is intended. The chosen laneway has a natural flow of wind, which is to be expressed on the screens.

The screens are made of FOLED, meaning Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode, and are a new innovative technology, which are energy efficient and sustainable. FOLEDs are flexible devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that emit light with the application of electricity. FOLEDs are used as video displays and are extremely lightweight as do not require a backlight to function. This allows the FOLEDs to be extremely thin and use less energy making them more environmentally sustainable.

The FOLED’s screens used in this installation will be a flexible plastic with a thickness of 5mm. The integrity of the façades will not affect by the screens because of their flexibility and weight. The screens will be inspired by some of the drawings and paintings by Australian artists of the early colonial period, and display images of the Australian landscape, similar to what Rieby Place looked like 200 years ago before the white settlement. The screens will play like a short film and display moving trees swaying in the wind. The film will be on a continued repeat making the laneway seem as though you have just stepped back in time, and your standing in a forest.

The installation of the screens will be similar the method of sliding roller doors. The screens will sit flush in between two sets of parallel rails that are position on the floor and wall of the laneway. As the screens bend and curve around the buildings, so to will the rails, which will allow for easy deconstruction of the installation.

CONCEPTUAL DESCRIPTION

Ribey Place is named after Mary Ribey, an English woman who was transported to Australia as a convict but went on to become a successful businesswoman in Sydney.

Mary Reiby’s portrait is now on the modern Australian $20 banknote and is an Australian Icon. Ribey Place is located in Circular Quay, which was originally named Sydney Cove and was discover by Arthur Phillip in 1788. The display on the FOLED screens is to depict the natural Australian environment back in 1788 before white settlement. The screens display a scene of a wild landscape, with all the natural elements effecting the surroundings (Sun, Breeze, Smell, Shadow)

Walking through Circular Quay you decide to enter a laneway as a short cut to reach your destination. You’re in a rush and your mind is racing. Your heart is beating at a fast pace and stress is overwhelming you. Half way down the laneway you begin to notice there is something different. Something appearing on the walls. Luminous shades of green in the shape of leaves cover the façade of the buildings. You find yourself in what appears to be a dense, lust forest. Your imagination drowns the sounds of busy traffic to the point where all you can hear is your own breathing. The sun shines vibrantly through the tall, whimsical trees, which casts playful rays of sunlight down on you. You have been taken out of the busy city and find yourself in an exotic place, full of unfamiliar botanical plants. The branches of trees sway gently in the wind creating dancing shadows, which flood the forest with movement. A sense of ease flows through your body as the breeze suddenly picks up and blows through your hair. The smell of the sea passes you by. Beginning to appreciate this natural world you stand still and alone in the space soaking up all the goodness surrounding you. Your mind is clear and relaxation spreads through your entire body. As you begin to continue with your day the positive experience stays with you. Inside you, not only as a physical transition has taken place, but mentally and emotionally.

The installation of the FOLED screen is to create the scene of a native Australian forest without changing the integrity of the buildings, yet also us of what Sydney Cove looked then and how much it has changed in time. The imagery on the screens of native Australia and extinct plant life are to reminding us of the fragility of our world, as there is only one world and only one chance to make things right.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science

Albert Einstein

The words ‘Create, Clone and Construct’ were the first step into my research for this major work. I began to find inspirational images that truly expressed these three words and combined them with some of my interests including; organic shapes, natural repetition an pattern. I really wanted to create an artwork that strongly represented creating an object, cloning it and literally construct an installation over time while still expressing my interests and style as a designer.

Through my research I started to become inspired by the world around us, which naturally creates, clones and constructs itself, which can be seen through Fibonacci math in nature. Leonardo Fibonacci is considered to be [1] the most talented mathematician of the Middle Ages. His first book ‘Liber Abaci’ meaning ‘Book of Calculation’ introduced Europe to the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in the 13^thCentury, and is still used to this day. This new system revealed the importance of the number zero, as the Roman Numerals [1]didn’t have zeros and lacked place value. This truly changed math forever as Fibonacci began to find a series of mathematical sequences, which we can in nature. The following problem was written in Fibonacci’s Book of Calculation

[1]A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair, which from the second month on becomes productive?

It was this problem that led to the beginning of the Fibonacci Numbers and the Fibonacci sequence, which is what he remains famous for to this day. The sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55... This sequence shows that each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. It is this sequence that can be seen not only in rabbits but many forms of nature from animals, shells, plants, leaf and petal arrangement and seed heads.

My interest in the Fibonacci sequence lays in the design and patterns of a sunflower. The florets in a sunflowers head are arranged in two opposing spirals, [1]the reason seems to be that this arrangement forms an optimal packing of the seeds so that, no matter how large the seed head, they are uniformly packed at any stage, all the seeds being the same size, no crowding in the centre and not too sparse at the edges. The numbers of spirals in each direction always add up to a Fibonacci number which I wanted to represent in my lighting installation.

My lighting installation “Florets” uses the spirals of a sunflower, which precisely add up to two Fibonacci numbers. Each spiral contains 21 glass florets, which are hand made out of solid glass from the hot shop varying in colour from bright intense yellow, forest green and orange bronze. The front of the light is made out of black Perspex which has been domed making it appear third more dimensional, and the glass pieces are illuminated from the in inside making the installation glow like stars in the night sky.

Footnotes

[1] Grimm, R. E., "The Autobiography of Leonardo Pisano", Fibonacci Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 1973, pp. 99-104

2 Sahlqvist, Leif . Cardinal Alignments and the Golden Section: Principles of Ancient Cosmography and Design (3rd Rev. Ed. ed.). Charleston, SC: BookSurge

3 Huntley, H. E. (1970). The Divine Proportion: A Study in Mathematical Proportion. New York: Dover Publications