Mood Board:
Drawings and Sketches:
Process Photos:
My piece is a representation of different hand gestures in yoga which are also known as Mudras. These mudras are something that I have seen my grandfather practicing everyday. He believes that it helps heals the body in a healthy way and provides energy to have a good start and end of the day.
I focused on two specific mudras, one that is done with one hand, and the other one is done using both hands. The first Mudra that I did creating a fist, which is called Mushti Mudra. Mushti means fist in sanskrit. This mudra is know to help let out aggression and anger and any stress in a healthily manner. The second Mudra that I created using plaster was by interlocking my fingers together, and then keeping both the middle fingers up. This is called Matangi Mudra. Matangi is defined as the God of all Harmony and peace, hence this Mudra helps to reinforce a breathing cycle, and it leads all the energy into the abdomen of the body.
I created these using casting plaster and alginate. I was inspired by the technique of Daniel Arsham, I used his technique to create an eroded look. Once I casted my hand, I would put some amount of gravel inside while putting the plaster in so that the gravel would be a part of the plater and when I would remove the plater it would have eroded effect. I wanted to add more of a raw and eroded look hence I focused on put more of the gravel even after I created the hand. For the second one I added blue and silver paint to give it more of an old look. I really wanted the piece to have an ancient or raw look because of the origins of Yoga and how long it has been around in my culture and my grandfathers life. In India Yoga is something that people practice on a day to day basis, once in the morning when they wake up and then once before they sleep to end the day while the body is relaxed and at peace.
Here is are images of my final piece
