Hey, I'm Zaki and thank you so much for visiting my portfolio site! I am a big fan of interdisciplinary design and love to dabble and learn in any area that I can, but would love to specialize in fashion. My apologies for all the bugs and kinks, I promise to get them up and running as soon as I can. Hope you like my stuff! :).
New York: A Visceral Journey
Fashion Collage and Illustration; Copics and Mixed Media
Scene - Description
New York represents the ideal of so many things that I hold so close to my heart, a convoluted desire and longing to be a part of an intangible dream.
My journey reflects a catharsis upon reaching that dream; from stepping onto the winter streets of Brooklyn to visiting the Empire State, an uncontrolled release of impulse to absorb and assimilate everything that New York has to offer, and the eventual disillusionment that comes along with any protectively harboured childhood dream. That first moment where it unravels to a reality, and then the consequences that follow.
As a foreigner on hostile territory, we try our best to learn, adapt and alter ourselves to blend in to our surroundings, attempting to learn the local language, try the different local cuisine and hang out like a true-blue New Yorker; embodying the fast-paced hustle and bustle of the city. This is part of our primal instincts not only to survive, but to thrive at all costs.
With senses heightened, I readily absorbed the colours and textures that I saw on the streets as a base to form a character, ready to adjust and mould to an identity that would make me blend in with the natives of the city. My journey starts off using the pre-programmed senses I have acquired from back home, choosing to perceive things through my lens, instead of adapting the lens of a local.
Struggling to blend in with the existing interweaving cultures that root the city, it becomes a bellicose fight to survive. Every person is at war, facing a personal battle to nourish their dream, using camouflage not only to blend in, but to stand out.
The end of my journey marks a transcendence above the futile battle, where I choose to take myself out of the running of this rat race. The energy feeds me, but I distance myself to prevent it from engulfing me whole, retaining my own distinctive identity that is definitely not that of a New Yorker.
Helium
Laser-cut Vinyl Sticker and Wall Paint
Community Service Initiative for Victoria Junior College
Tasked to do an exterior revamp of the existing college restrooms in lieu with it’s 25th anniversary celebrations, my proposal was chosen to be executed in a set of 6 restrooms.
Original designs stood alongside adapted works, being largely inspired by well-known London based stencil graffiti artist Banksy; in exploring a re-contextualization of his pieces in a different setting and how it would affect the messages being sent across.
Creative decisions include the use of a duo-tone colour scheme per restroom, with colours corresponding to the 6 Houses in the college. Ceilings were also painted correspondingly to add visual impact.
The work hopes to inspire and provoke a little thought through a story of colour.
Dont Stop, Colour Block.
Modular Fashion Installation/ Mixed Media/ Photography
Graduating A-Level Work
Architecture has played a fundamental role in adapting and shaping our society. In the same way, fashion constantly updates itself, rehashing styles through the centuries in an infinite cycle. Thus, the work deals with an exploration of the interconections between architecture and fashion, finding the basis of their relations with each other; which is to support and protect.
Architecture is adapted and broken down to its bare essentials, being its metal skeleton, in the same way that the form of the body is crucial in the alteration of differing proportions and structures in fashion. In finding their relations with one another, they are deconstructed into simplistic shapes and forms, accompanied with blocked, solid colours to form modular units; working from various base shapes, then integrating together with the use of an interlocking system to hold differing forms, using hardened and layered fabric as an independent developed support, moulding together for the desired needs of the user.
Stories from the Pavement
Creative Direction, Poster and Ticket Design for Jitterbugs Swingapore, with 4 alternate designs for the tickets; including photography for main poster.
I’m also not an Anya Hindmarch Bag
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 36” x 24”
I’m also not an Anya Hindmarch Bag was incepted through the process of viewing the relevance of artists - most notably of renowned painters - from the past to today’s society, in relation to how their works transcend time.
I chose to contemporize a prominent work (Nighthawks by Edward Hopper), using the subject matter and themes strongly associated with the work as a springboard to develop impressions and relative associations about my work. Other artists references include Rene Magritte, also being inspired by the fashion craze of the Anya Hindmarch bags: “I’m Not A Plastic Bag.”
My work intends to portray loneliness through rapid development in our urban society, dealing with an increased sense of materialism and ubiquity in the way we speak, act and dress, becoming clones of one another.
We become constantly distracted with the pursuit of material wealth, technology, pop culture amongst other things in search of happiness, causing an even greater isolation from the people around us. Who are we then when all these distractions fall away?
(The work is currently on display on school grounds)
