India Song Adventure | Pallavi Padukone

RAHUL AND RINI'S INDIA SONG ADVENTURE

‘Designing with Archives’ was a project associated with the Tasveer Gallery and Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bangalore, India. It involved taking inspiration from the archives of the gallery’s collection and translating it into a contemporary functional product or an ornamental artifact.

INSPIRATION

Karen is an American photographer born in Germany, raised in Puerto Rico, and now settled in London. She has spent a significant part of her life traveling, which is visible in her work. What makes her photography unique is that she addresses debates in cultural studies and creates a link between social order, hierarchies, and architectural spaces in a whimsical manner. Her style of photography lies in examining the meaning of spaces, rooms, houses, and monuments and using them to comment on topics such as gender, art, history, and taste. Her photographs are metaphors that narrate stories.

Her interest in Indian culture, heritage, and architecture brought her to India for her second time in 2009 and resulted in her photography series- India Song. For this series, she was intrigued by the 16th century Mughal and Rajput architecture seen in forts, palaces, havelis, and monuments, primarily in Rajasthan. What makes her series whimsical is the placement of wild animals in such unlikely settings, which borders on being surreal and looking somewhat completely natural.

Client: Tasveer Gallery, Museum of Art

and Photography, Bangalore

Role: Designer

Timeline: August - November 2014

Karen Knorr's India Song series

Giving my own twist to Karen Knorr’s photographs, I designed a storytelling cushion and floor pillow set for children aged 6 - 11 years called ‘Rahul and Rini’s India Song Adventure’. Rhyming text accompanies each scene, with a total of six scenes each derived from a photograph from her series. Each window unfolds an illustration from my story incorporating the colors and frescoes from the Jaipur City Palace, Udaipur City Palace, Podar Haveli, Junha Mahal, and Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India.

PRODUTS

PROCESS

Anchor 1

RAHUL AND RINI’S INDIA SONG ADVENTURE COLLECTION

A set of two cushions that can be doubled as pillows, designed ideally for children between the ages group of 6 - 11 years. Each opened window unfolds a scene from my story - Rahul and Rini’s India Song Adventure, with the two-piece set completing the story. Children can play with the form of the pillows by opening the ends to create a more comfortable seating arrangement, while a simple method of tying the extendable parts together holds them in place. The enlarged size of the pillows makes them great floor cushions and the padding in the windows when tied closed, provides a raised headrest for reading in bed without straining the neck.