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JAI PATEL

Topic Research Compositional Studies

This Construction was made for a topic looking at structures. Initial research focused on media experiments looking at physical structure and tension and artists such as Judy Pfaff and Alberto Giacometti This mixed-media piece explores physical tension in bridges, through use of layering, overlapping forms, negative and positive space and repeating forms to create a feeling of tension and stress from highly condensed details. Forms have been reduced to simple line drawings that, when coupled with negative spaces, give this piece a sense of fragility that one would regard a high-tension bridge to have.

IGCSE - December 2007 Tension

Jai Patel

Inspiration

Artist Analysis

Planning

This piece is a response to the Hungry Ghosts Festival, a Chinese festival to appease spirits that are roaming the Earth by burning offerings. Practitioners believe the way that the smoke from offerings moves is controlled by the spirits. Thus, the mixed media sculpture depicts a ghost forming out ‘hell paper’, a common offering, and smoke coming from a pot of burning incense which has the symbol of the Chinese money god, linked with the festival as they believe that offerings that are monetarily valuable are superior to those that aren’t, and a related proverb painted on it.

International Baccalaureate - October 2008 Hungry Ghosts

Jai Patel

I have always documented my journeys in some form or another, be it sketching or photography, however recently acquiring a Lomography camera has changed the way I frame my observations. Using this camera with 120 format film puts restrictions on my images, such as the square format and the degraded image quality when compared to digital photographs, but this puts emphasis on what a photograph really is; a snapshot in time, not the whole story but merely a fleeting memory, a single instance within its own context.

Oolti Bicycle

Highway

Yatra 1/5

Meaning upside-down bicycle, ‘Oolti Bicycle’ is derogatory slang in Hindi for homosexuals. When visiting an old fort in India, I noticed two men walking hand in hand, common practice in India among friends. Although aware that this was perfectly normal, I was still shocked, as homosexuality is still quite unheard of in India and this is something that I would expect from homosexuals in the Western World, where I have grown up. The film was damaged during development, but this adds to the Taboo I felt. This photo highlights how I have become an outsider to the culture of my country of origin.

India is becoming an industrialist nation rapidly.

Towns are becoming cities, farmland is becoming cineplexes and winding roads are becoming highways. On a trip between two towns that I often make, I was halted by the traffic caused by the construction of this behemoth, a flyover that will supposedly alleviate traffic. By using a high ISO film to de-saturate the image, I tried to convey the grim reality of India’s India’s industrialisation, as the simple India that I loved was becoming a carbon copy of every other industrial nation, its culture giving way to progress.

Meaning ‘Journey’ in Hindi, ‘Yatra 1/5’ is one of a series of five photographs exploring my journeys around India, searching for a cultural identity that I have lost living abroad. Taken from the jeep I was in, this image depicts the common man’s means of travel around India, one of the things India is most famous for is people travelling on the top of vehicles, because it is cheaper than travelling inside. To me, this is an example of the typical India that I have grown up with; impractical yet charming. The wind in one’s hair while travelling along India’s long winding roads is a simple feeling, but one that makes you feel at peace, which is what I wanted to portray here.

Independent Work - December 2008 Film Photography - India

Jai Patel

Research

Media Experiments

Continuing the unit following the work of Robert Rauschenberg, this piece is a response to his transfer drawings, the effect created by soaking magazine and newspaper photos in white spirit, then placing them face-down on paper and transferring the image using the pressure of an empty pen nib, giving the transferred images a sketched appearance. Rauschenberg often used advertisements in his pieces to reflect the commercialist nature of his society as well as images from the Vietnam war and other contemporary events to reflect the context of his era. I have worked similarly, using advertisements as well as images relating to the credit crunch, conflict in the middle east and even the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine over gas pipelines.

International Baccalaureate - February 2009 A Brief History of the last Three Months

Jai Patel

Inspiration

Draw The Line I

Draw The Line II

Mapping Experiment

‘Draw the Line’ Art Exhibition - March 2009 Draw the Line I & II

This series was produced for a themed exhibition - ‘Draw the Line.’ Looking to the work of Anuradha Mathur and Dilip Da Cunha, landscape architects, these pieces use lineation, as do most of Mathur and Da Cunha’s work, to bring attention to certain forms or to bring out lines that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Using photographs taken on a trip to Champaner, India, a UNESCO world heritage site where many mosques and temples are currently being restored, I have used digital lineation to bring attention to physical lines that would otherwise be overlooked, drawing lines to emphasise those that already exist. To continue to explore this, ‘Draw the line II’ is made up of two photographs that have been merged using pillars that feature in both photos to merge them, drawing a figurative line to link the two points in time.

Jai Patel

Colour and Layering Experiments

Source Photograph

When looking at a photograph that I took during a service project in Bali, I noted that a section of it was similarly composed to Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ and looked into the work of Pollock.

Identifying that Pollock tried to portray his subconscious mind in relation to his cultural era - one that he believed was in a state of organised chaos. This was how I viewed my time in Bali, organised chaos, working in a village that had only recently been reconnected with the Balinese population. Thus, I found it appropriate to respond to Pollock by abstracting this photo digitally through various stages, experimenting with layering and colour schemes, till the only tangible forms left were that of the tree trunks against complete abstraction.

International Baccalaureate - May 2009 Organised Chaos

Jai Patel

Source Images

Planning

Individual Views from Performance

AA Summer School - July 2009 Monument to the Defining Moment

In this homage to the capture of the defining moment, iconic images were combined and had their contexts changed in this performance to create a amalgamation of these moments in society's past, challenging notions of context and framing as they overlap and merge into a new scenario.

This performance was produced for the AA Summer School 2009 drawing on the Battle of Orgreave re-enactment by Jeremy Deller and Mark Wallinger始s State Britain as major points of inspiration.

Jai Patel

To the left is a sketch of a street performer I saw in La Plaza Mayor in Madrid during my summer holidays. There was a depressing irony in him posing as Spiderman for money that I wanted to capture. A character so widely revered by young children was being seemingly mocked by a man probably left out of better options of work by the global recession. The costume was pulled tight across his belly but hung awkwardly on his thighs, wrinkling around his knees. This man demanded attention from everyone that passed, though probably not the kind he would have appreciated..

Below is an observational drawing of my bedroom. Psychologist, Samuel Gosling, showed that observation of one’s living space is a much better indicator of character than direct interview as most people can’t be objective about themselves. The bedroom becomes an amalgamation of oneself; hobbies, memories, obsessions and habits can all be identified through a quick scan of one’s belongings. I have depicted a corner of my room that is heavily filled with my possessions, an objective portrayal of myself in a sense.

Independent Work - November 2009 Examples of Observational Drawing

Jai Patel

Based on the brief of portraying the street I live on in an interesting light, this is my satirical view of my living environment.

Inspired by Mad Magazine’s monthly section, ‘A Mad Look at…’ which examines ordinary situations and portrays them as having more to them than meets the eye, I have digitally compiled a composite image of the four types of building on my street (High-rise, hotel, house and construction site) and cut into them to reveal the surreal events that go on behind closed doors using pen. From the security guard asleep while on duty, to the chef feeding a rat in the so-called VIP Hotel’s kitchen, there is more to Balmoral Crescent than meets the eye.

Independent Work - December 2009 A Mad look at Balmoral Crescent

Jai Patel

Self-portraits are often mirror-drawn representations of one’s face. Mirrors produce introspective interpretations of one’s self so I opted for a more objective approach with my self-portrait, drawing my body from my left eye in my most relaxed position, sitting on the sofa, a part of myself that I often see. I have documented this drawing to the right.

Recently I was ill and was spending a lot of time on the toilet when I realised I spent a lot of time thinking on there. Albert Einstein said that his most profound thinking occurred while he shaved, a mundane process, and I agree. My feet are what I see while I think, spatially interesting and familiar to me, this is my favourite space. I portrayed this space below.

Independent Work - December 2009 Examples of Observational Drawing

Jai Patel

As a part of my International Baccalaureate Curriculum, I wrote my extended essay in the field of art, examining New Brutalism as a movement. Below is the abstract: Many architects agree that architecture that reflects the ideologies and aspirations of its society will be successful. However, is this the only factor that affects the success of an architectural style?

New Brutalism was said to be congruent with the context of immediate post-war Britain even though later it was considered to be a failure as a movement within Britain, with the demolition of many of the developments following the style currently under deliberation. This example alone proved that external factors must also affect the success of an architectural movement. This paper aimed to identify other key factors that play a role in the success of an architectural movement. The paper examined New Brutalism looking at both ethic and aesthetic, and then moved on to look at specific case studies within New Brutalism. External factors were then assessed in relation to the case studies. In this case, economic, historical, social, sociological and critical artistic viewpoints were considered to explore the movement further.

It was concluded that New Brutalism failed because of a combination of the external factors investigated as well as a lack of understanding on the part of the general public. These findings could not be generally applied when looking at other movements but could be used to create a rough framework on which to base investigation into other architectural movements and examine reasons for their success or failure.

International Baccalaureate Extended Essay - December 09 An Investigation into the Failure of New Brutalism in Post-War Britain

Jai Patel

Villa Sarabhai was designed by Le Corbusier in 1951 for Manorama Sarabhai. Built in Ahmedabad, India, the house’s open plan (top/bottom left) has all major walls running parallel to the prevailing wind such that most of the ventilation is passive. The design of the entire house is based around this and this is what we explored through our maquettes. The threshold of the house has been deliberately left open to allow for ventilation, and thus, the façade is primarily made up of supporting walls and the edge of the roof.

However, a bamboo blind exists which affords the occupants some degree of privacy and also develops an ambiguity between interior and exterior. We examined this in our first maquette (top right). Juhani Pallasmaa argues that architecture should be experienced as a whole sensory experience and this is how we decided to define the threshold in our second maquette (centre). In this concrete cast, we experimented with the different textures that one would encounter on the ground as they approached the house, from the garden to the patio to the interior spaces. Our final maquette explored enclosure and how the layout of the house affected ventilation. We did this by building an interactive model where polystyrene balls show how air flows through the house when propelled by a fan. It is interesting to note how gusts are caught in some of the bays to create a reversed airflow and how others are built entirely around cross-ventilation (top left).

BSc - 2010 Exemplar Drawing/Exemplar Maquette

Jai Patel

As part of a study trip to Dublin, Ireland, we were required to keep an analytical sketchbook of the various locatins that we visited. Above is a collection of those drawings.

BSc - 2011 Dublin Sketchbook

Jai Patel

The Brief for this project was to design a pierhead at the end of a 40-metre-long promenade that could house a birdwatching club and bird hide. We were to design using a working model over 6 weeks, the final iteration of which can be seen above. The project also introduced us to using 3DS Max as a tool for designing and rendering; some of the final renders can be seen on the right. The concept behind the design was that of looking through the reeds.

The site for the pierhead is in Cardiff wetlands reserve and the outer-cladding allows the bird hide to be discreet enough to not disturb surrounding wildlife while allowing birdwatchers to look out.

BSc - 2010 Pier Assemblage

Jai Patel