RIA RAJAN

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Doing Things For Your Younger Self

Doing things for your younger self

7 hours of unparalleled joy at the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London. 

I never really understood the concept until I was standing at Platform 9 and 3/4 in front of The Hogwarts Express feeling like everything was right in the world. 

Being on the set, surrounded by the props from the books and movies that made my entire childhood felt like it was created just for me, so that I could stand there and look around and see everything I have loved for so many years now. I got to pet the Hippogriff in the Forbidden Forest, see the memory jars in Dumbledore’s study and examine the Goblins (very closely) at Gringotts. I know most of us grew up waiting for our Hogwarts letters to arrive but for me, I tried to make my everyday life like it was straight out of one of the books.

Well, not me as much as my mum. I’ve had glasses for as long as I can remember. I had a lazy eye when I was 5 so I’ve been wearing glasses since preschool. I got used to them over the years but may mum told me that I would feel different because I had them so young. My mom, being an artist herself put my thick purple frames on everyones face. I remember having a book with printouts of Hannah Montana, Mickey Mouse and Hermione Granger wearing the same glasses as me. Hermione was everything I wanted to be growing up. Thank god for that because there was no other way I was going to manage giving board exams in science and math if it weren’t for how smart she was, how smart she made me want to be. Mum also sent me to school, telling me that we would get lunch every single day, like the did at the Great Hall. I went into my school’s lunch hall expecting well, the great hall. You can imagine how that went.

 

I’ve read these books so many times I have the first page of The Philosopher’s Stone memorised. The moment I finished the last page of the Deathly Hallows I would pick up Philosophers Stone again. Every single time there was something new to take away from those same pages. J.K. Rowling really meant it when she said that “The stories we love best do live in us forever so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” 

The ticket for the Harry Potter Warner Brother’s Studio Tour was a 22nd birthday gift from my family. When I saw the email with the ticket conformation, I squealed, and I’m really not someone who squeals. Being a designer myself, being in this space was a dream.

This is what art and design can do. 

This is what art and design should do.

 

Doing things for your younger self

I never really understood the concept until I was standing at Platform 9 and 3/4 in front of The Hogwarts Express feeling like everything was right in the world. 

Being on the set, surrounded by the props from the books and movies that made my entire childhood felt like it was created just for me, so that I could stand there and look around and see everything I have loved for so many years now. I got to pet the Hippogriff in the Forbidden Forest, see the memory jars in Dumbledore’s study and examine the Goblins (very closely) at Gringotts. I know most of us grew up waiting for our Hogwarts letters to arrive but for me, I tried to make my everyday life like it was straight out of one of the books.

Well, not me as much as my mum. I’ve had glasses for as long as I can remember. I had a lazy eye when I was 5 so I’ve been wearing glasses since preschool. I got used to them over the years but may mum told me that I would feel different because I had them so young. My mom, being an artist herself put my thick purple frames on everyones face. I remember having a book with printouts of Hannah Montana, Mickey Mouse and Hermione Granger wearing the same glasses as me. Hermione was everything I wanted to be growing up. Thank god for that because there was no other way I was going to manage giving board exams in science and math if it weren’t for how smart she was, how smart she made me want to be. Mum also sent me to school, telling me that we would get lunch every single day, like the did at the Great Hall. I went into my school’s lunch hall expecting well, the great hall. You can imagine how that went.

I’ve read these books so many times I have the first page of The Philosopher’s Stone memorised. The moment I finished the last page of the Deathly Hallows I would pick up Philosophers Stone again. Every single time there was something new to take away from those same pages. J.K. Rowling really meant it when she said that “The stories we love best do live in us forever so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” 

The ticket for the Harry Potter Warner Brother’s Studio Tour was a 22nd birthday gift from my family. When I saw the email with the ticket conformation, I squealed, and I’m really not someone who squeals. Being a designer myself, being in this space was a dream.

This is what art and design can do. 

This is what art and design should do.

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Deconstructing Perceptions | me by ME

Deconstructing Perceptions | me by ME​

This was my ISC Board Project in 2019. A sculptural portrait in Plaster of Paris. 

I made this sculpture in 2019 for my ISC Board Project in the 12th Grade. The sculpture has an interior of a metal wire framework, newspaper packing with a final layer of POP. The hair is made with rope and coconut husk. The features and details were carved once the POP had dried.

The sculpture is titled ‘Deconstructing Perceptions’, a bit edgy for a 17 year old but that’s what I wanted to call it at the time.

My teachers in school would call me out for wearing lip balm as if it was to ‘impress the boys’ and they would ask me to tie my hair because if it was open the boys in class wouldn’t be able to focus. I remember for one event we all had to wear saris and you could see a bit of my collarbones and scapula in the blouse that I was wearing and my class teacher called me out in front of all the students for trying to ‘entice’ the boys around me. 

I’m a girl, of course every single thing I do is for boys look at me, duh! I was 17 and angry and so, I made this sculpture, using myself as a reference with exaggerated features, a really big chest and a resting bitch face.

Sometimes, the male gaze comes from high school teachers. Who would have thought! 

Deconstructing Perceptions | me by ME

I made this sculpture in 2019 for my ISC Board Project in the 12th Grade. The sculpture has an interior of a metal wire framework, newspaper packing with a final layer of POP. The hair is made with rope and coconut husk. The features and details were carved once the POP had dried.

The sculpture is titled ‘Deconstructing Perceptions’, a bit edgy for a 17 year old but that’s what I wanted to call it at the time.

My teachers in school would call me out for wearing lip balm as if it was to ‘impress the boys’ and they would ask me to tie my hair because if it was open the boys in class wouldn’t be able to focus. I remember for one event we all had to wear saris and you could see a bit of my collarbones and scapula in the blouse that I was wearing and my class teacher called me out in front of all the students for trying to ‘entice’ the boys around me. 

I’m a girl, of course every single thing I do is for boys look at me, duh! I was 17 and angry and so, I made this sculpture, using myself as a reference with exaggerated features, a really big chest and a resting bitch face.

Sometimes, the male gaze comes from high school teachers. Who would have thought! 

Deconstructing Perceptions | me by ME

I made this sculpture in 2019 for my ISC Board Project in the 12th Grade. The sculpture has an interior of a metal wire framework, newspaper packing with a final layer of POP. The hair is made with rope and coconut husk. The features and details were carved once the POP had dried.

The sculpture is titled ‘Deconstructing Perceptions’, a bit edgy for a 17 year old but that’s what I wanted to call it at the time.

My teachers in school would call me out for wearing lip balm as if it was to ‘impress the boys’ and they would ask me to tie my hair because if it was open the boys in class wouldn’t be able to focus. I remember for one event we all had to wear saris and you could see a bit of my collarbones and scapula in the blouse that I was wearing and my class teacher called me out in front of all the students for trying to ‘entice’ the boys around me. 

I’m a girl, of course every single thing I do is for boys look at me, duh! I was 17 and angry and so, I made this sculpture, using myself as a reference with exaggerated features, a really big chest and a resting bitch face.

Sometimes, the male gaze comes from high school teachers. Who would have thought! 

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When Love Arrives Animation

Animation on the poem 'When Love Arrives'

‘When love arrives’ by Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye was the first spoken word poem that I heard about 4 years ago. I instantly fell in love with it and find myself going back to it so often. 

Using the elements of design, I have captured how the poem makes me feel. The nostalgia and that feeling of being at home, you get, when you’re in love, and how it feels when you’re not. 

Made on Toon Boom, Harmony.