Indian Influence

Going to India had a significant impact on my view of this project. I visited some Hindu Temples and they were amazing, in particular the power of a shared myth and the animal deities really stood out to me and how humans held a relationship with these deities. Often a family has a particular deity they hold in highest regard that they pray to as there are so many to choose from. Every shop I went into had shrines! Sometimes they were christian but more often they were Hindu deities and almost all of the sculptures and artworks were based on these deities too. It is such an integral part of their culture and is such a source of comfort, strength, inspiration and love in their day to day life, bringing people together, unfortunately it is also a great source of conflict. We were told on our trip that there had been lots of conflict kicking off between different groups and also mainly the political groups such as the communists and the others.

But back to my product inspiration- the items in the shrines and the temples were amazing, mainly because they held such historical myth/legends behind them which all the Hindus believe in and pray to. It was amazing to see such a rich culture and a human built temple and shrine dedicated to a shared myth/faith. Just showed the power of Homo sapiens working and believing in something together. It took years to construct.

Because of this research into the culture of shrines and the animal deities in the everyday life of Homo sapiens, I have decided it is important to use the element of shrines in my practical work to show this part of the human condition (believing in shared myths).

I also had a left over matchbox I was saving for another DIY project but I suddenly thought it would be good as a mini shrine as I have previously seen these before somewhere, luckily for me there is a lot of inspiration online of how other people have crafted their own shrines in matchbox type of boxes etc!

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/matchbx.html
Here is my pinterest board dedicated to my COP3 project:
https://www.pinterest.com/dearalice1/cop3/