Typology: Art Photography
Role: Concept, Photography and editing.
Location: Dessau, Germany
Photography: Mazin Ali and Samuel Sanchez
Completed: 2016
A poetic and photographic art project of a self-portrait series aimed at capturing the idea of 'Defiance'. Questioning authority, convention or norm. To challenge, oppose and rebel.
Reveries of a Subverter
Submissive. Docile. Passive.
A box. A cocoon. A shell.
No it isn't a safe house
for death or here after.
It is a screen of fear,
my dread-filled dear.
One over truth
and reality my friend
A false light in a cave
A dark shade over love
Its not an orchid darling
But a swarm of Mantes.
Cutting your eyes
with blades and lies.
But you love it don't you?
you won't ever dare to resist,
you wont ever dare to subvert,
would you?
Because heaven is awaiting you
with all that gold isn't it Darling?
Promises of wine and wishes,
are dying to be fulfilled aren't they?
Oh I how I envy you,
to be living in a world
only to realise
that all I know
is truly nothing.
- Mazin Ali
Typology: Digital Art / Illustration
Completed: 2018-2020
A collection of illustrated artworks from reveries of characters and personas. I have a love for creating hand sketched artworks which I further experiment and improvise over digital mediums. My fascinations lie in character concepts and science fiction.
Typology: Graphic design and Visual communication
Role: Concept development and Design
Completed: 2016-2020
A series of logos designed and branding projects for agencies, start-ups and other ventures. An exploration of colours, forms and fonts.
Typology: Graphic design and UI/UX
Role: Branding & Logo design and Web design
Location: Bangalore, India
Completed: 2015
A branding and web design project for a premium online automotive needs store named RPM. The concept portrays the identity in a sleek, dynamic and high spirited style. The logo is inspired from rally racing, with stripes and forms resembling the robust and agile nature of the vehicles.
The UI/UX design was based on a simple and direct structure for ease of use and navigation.
Typology: Graphic design
Role: Branding and logo design
Location: Bangalore, India
Completed: 2016
A branding project for an interior design firm in Bangalore. The firm emphasised on a practice which focused on intrinsic detailing and bringing about minimally fashioned premium end design to its clientele. The branding identity is conceptualised based on the same. Black and white monotones with an architectural design aesthetic reflect upon the over all design concept.
Typology: Illustration, Philosophy
Role: Research, Concept, Content writing and Illustration
Location: Dessau, Germany
Completed: 2017
An illustrated artwork based on the subject of "Nothingness", derived from ancient Indian historic, mathematic and philosophical concepts.
Manifesto:-
God is Nothing
To begin with, I intend to explain the value of space in its purest essence. In a world full of ‘clutter’, we have forgotten the value of nothingness, and there lies the true realization of the value of space. We are surrounded by a farrago of things, objects and entities all around us. To realize what it means to be free of it all, is by itself a sense of awakening within our consciousness. To express this first I intend to explain Space in its bare form, without any entity or object within. A concept of a sort of nullity in space, devoid of all matter, which one would call Zero space or the Void. This would be a starting point of explaining the concept of space itself. To understand this concept I realize that one has to understand the state of nothingness. I begin exploring this with the origin of mankind’s realization of it.
The invention of zero in mathematics by the Indian mathematician and astronomist, Brahmagupta, led to profound revelations in Science and Mathematics. It’s discovery had not only influenced the logical practices but also in the spiritual and philosophical realms.
In the first millennia BC, scholars from the ancient Hindu school of thought and philosophy called the Advaitha Vedantha, contemplated over the concept of realizing/discovering/understanding the penultimate level of consciousness. On occasions when they would sit and debate over such subjects, they consumed a potion of herbs called the ‘Som-ras’, which heightened their consciousness to seek answers on the questions their minds dwelled upon. And so they came up with an intriguing deduction on the concept of nothingness.
There are millions of deities and gods in Hindu mythology, over 33 million infact. Each categorised under Elemental types (like Earth, Fire etc) and Conceptual types (wealth, knowledge, Creation, destruction etc). But there is one that prevails over all is an enigma called Nirguna Brahman. Nirguna brahman is conceived to be an inconceivable spirit, an unimaginable kind of divinity. One that exists everywhere but does not exists anywhere. This might be a paradoxical thought on the surface but this idea can be further explained.
To recognise day, night should relatively exist. Similarly, to recognise the existence of unimaginable nature, relatively the imaginable nature must exist. And the concept of nothingness or zero is a unachievable concept for a living being to experience, unimaginable. A feeling that can never be experienced by a conscious being.
Zero.
Formless, shapeless. A non entity, A non being.
A non-being that transcends all beings…
In other words, Nirguna Bhavan is nothing or no-one. Nirguna Brahman is true Nullity in spirit. An all supreme consciousness, which is free of any conscious thought or feeling. Pure and free by itself. The ultimate reality underlying all phenomena in the Hindu scriptures. Brahman is formless but is the birthplace of all forms in visible reality. Nirguna can be translated from Sanskrit as “ without qualities”, a consciousness free of thought and conception, a consciousness absolute. The ancient Hindus understood and realised, in their terms, that the God of all Gods was in fact “Nothingness”. And going by the definition of God, as a divine entity beyond man’s comprehensions. One which is primordial, has no beginning or end. One which is Omnipresent, that is present everywhere. One which is immortal. Upon whom the rules of the universe were not applicable. A transcendent being beyond all real comprehensions and conceptualisations. Nirguna Bhrahman is zero in every sense.
So if god according to the ancients is zero, what would be the physical manifestation of it? This could be understood better by understanding the idea of what is not God, the opposite of zero.
Something can not be nothing. And in physical terms, matter is something. Matter has presence. It can or can not have a consciousness. It has form and thereby it can not exist everywhere. limits in physicality define its parameters of existence. Matter is imaginable. matter exists. If matter is the anti-concept of zero by physical terms, then what would be the physical manifestation of zero? non matter?
Something that does not have a physical presence or absence. Something that is everywhere omnipresent. Something primordial.
There could only be one unaffected by the rules of the universe, unaffected by time, truly immortal…
Space.
A non-being.
One that exists everywhere
One that is within all.
Space is God.
Only in understanding the absence of something, can its presence be truly realised.
Typology: Graphic design
Role: Branding and logo design
Location: Bangalore, India
Completed: 2014
A branding project for a furniture design & interior decor company. The logo's forms and characteristics are derived from Bohemian icons and patterns. It presents itself with rounded fonts and a vibrant pastel colour scheme.
Typology: Graphic design
Role: Branding & Logo design
Location: Dessau, Germany
Completed: 2017
A branding and identity design project for an architectural design agency which focuses on state of the art hi-tech design. The logo is derived by simplifying the text forms of the title into a cryptic code like language, giving it a minimal yet futuristic style. The colour palette with an accent colour adds a touch of hi-energy contrast over a muted background.
Typology: Graphic design
Role: Branding and logo design
Location: Bangalore, India
Completed: 2015
A branding project for an interior design firm in Bangalore. The firm emphasised on a practice which focused on luxury interiors and premium end design to its clientele. The logo is conceptualised based on its title, depicting lines and planes overlaying to form bevelled edges, which also give it a sense of depth in layers. A monochromatic palette to give the identity a minimalistic look and feel.
