Birds of Paradise

‘Birds of Paradise’ is inspired by a classical poem from the canon of Islamic Philosophical Literature, called Mantiq-al-Tayr also known as The Conference of the Birds. Historically a book meant for adults, this project aims to bring it’s story to life for a younger audience. Highlighting the poem’s universal themes of love, truth and unity, it uses the contemporary medium of collage, to weave together a rich tapestry of Traditional Islamic Art patterns, colours, and symbols.

Animation

This animation consists of a Story Poem, written after delving deep into the forty thousand and more lines of the original poem. I focused on extracting the vital lessons and salient moments from the birds’ journey. Encapsulating the poem are stop motion animations made using both digital and analog collages. The story of Mantiq-ul-Tayr is relived and reimagined through my lens for a contemporary young audience, living in a new visual era.

*Mantiq ut-tair by Farid ud-Din Attar, is a series of allegorical poems about a flock of 30 birds led by a hoopoe on a journey to find their leader. The poem’s title comes from the Qur’an, 27:16.

During my thesis studio, I leaned into what I already knew of islamic art, but exploring it from the lens of graphic design. I discovered collage as a medium that allowed me to connect and layer these different art forms into one cohesive system. Playing with both digital and analog collage making, I carried out experimentation with traditional patterns combined with contemporary collaging techniques.

Process

Audience

The themes within The Conference of the Birds make for interesting storytelling which I thought, younger audiences can really appreciate, so for the purpose of this project, I defined the age for my audience to be roughly between 8-10 year old children.

Since I was already working with paper as my main medium, I decided to add an activity based layer to the project for my target audience. From my experience as a teacher trainer working closely with teachers, I knew that paper is easy to come by when in a school setting, and a more affordable and preferable resource material to engage children in activities.

I decided to integrate specific origami folds that embody the themes of the seven valleys. This not only introduces a layer of cross-cultural connectivity to the project but also enhanced the experiential nature of the story, vividly bringing the symbolism of the narrative to life.

Murals

Origami

This animation, showcases the unique origami paper patterns designed to represent the thirty different birds that complete the journey in the poem. Each design is inspired by the colouring of the birds as they are found in nature, with one side of the paper layered with Islamic Art inspired patterns and the other side spelling out the name of the bird in stylised calligraphy.