For this project, I was partnered with Wenny and Laina. Laina will be making a mask for me, I will be making a mask for Wenny, and Wenny will be making a mask for Laina. We created a group chat on Instagram and started our discussion on the project.
Through our meeting, we shared about each others’ local wicked problem. Wenny shared about the issue of the water system of Chongqing city, briefly introducing to me that the city is often called “mountain city” and “city on rivers” as it is built on a large number of mountains and is surrounded by rivers one of which is the longest and busiest river in Asia (Yangtze river). She then dived into the wicked problem which is the bad management of the water resource despite having to supply for a large population of Chongqing citizens. Aside from that, because of industrialization and urbanization, the water resource is considered to be of poor quality.
After hearing from Wenny, I sketched out what I wanted in the mask design. I translated what Wenny has described and the key points of her wicked problem into a literal illustration. With two mountains on the left to represent that the city is built within mountains. The river is sourced from the mountains and flows through to reach the city. As it reaches the city the color of the river will change to indicate that it becomes polluted because of urbanization.
This is the final result of my mask that is entirely designed using natural dye. I used most of the natural dye that I created from last week’s experiment and also made some new ones such as the yellow color using turmeric. It was actually harder than I thought to paint with these dyes because I had to put layers upon layers to achieve a strong color. I also experimented with mixing colors to achieve certain colors. Aside from that, some of the colors bled with each other as can be seen with the river and the mountain and the river and the cityscape. The colors also bled to the other side as seen in the last picture which I actually really like because you can see the colors that I used as they are and they start to blend with each other. I also think that because of my masks’ texture it was a little harder to paint over it. But overall, for my first experience of natural dye painting it turned out to be a decent result.
