'Lord of the Flies'
is a unique design which I have been working on in my spare time for a few weeks. The one off piece, a conceptual wall hanging based around historical art symbolism, began life as a mixed media study, using watercolour, metallic ink, coffee and my beloved biro.
The design went from study to wall hanging with the help of the Mimaki TX2, which I have been operating during my Print Technician Internship. Capturing the fine details with perfect precision, digital print is ideal for work like this which is so fine and detailed. It is also quite fitting that I end my internship, in which I have helped many students on the road to creating their degree show collections, by visualizing some of my own design dreams!
The design features numerous flies, beetles and animals which are historically associated with evil and the Devil, some of which still carry these connotations today. All of these creepy crawlies can be seen radiating around the central figure, Beelzebub. The design has a purposeful feeling of growth, as gnats, stag beetles, rhinoceros beetles and other weird and wonderful insects emanate from the over-sized Musca Domestica, whom is playing the role of Satan in this strange scene of worshiping, devoted insects.
The concept for this piece came to me a while ago, along with a number of other strange play on words design ideas which use nature to tell a tale in a slightly twisted manner. It feels great to have finally visualized this idea and be back developing my strange ideas, fantastical fabric created just in time for Christmas!