Walking into an interior design exhibition, you would expect to see a furniture display fashioned with complementing drapery —but here, you are in for a pleasant surprise.

Students of the third year (fifth semester) of the faculty of interior design at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) recently displayed one of their most exciting projects of this term.

Inspired by films, works of 16 students were put together in a space installation exhibition — unlike any other run-of-the-mill interiors display. Walking through the labyrinth, made you want to revisit someone of the films the students had chosen just to gauge its essence with the same depth these young minds had managed to apprehend in their creations.

Extracting the quintessence of transformation from Neil Burger’s The illusionist, Faiza Rafiq produced a magic-like space with butterflies, representing different phases of life with colour.

Aspiring students produce a distinctive space installation exhibition which is inspired by movies

Inspired by Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, which portrays an orphan boy who lives in the walls of a train station in ’30s Paris and embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton left to him by his father, Bisma Zia’s interior is reminiscent of a railway station, while she portrays the ever present notion of time present in the film through keys, exemplifying the memories one keeps ‘locked’ in their subconscious mind.

Rooshna Ahsanullah’s gripping Divergent exudes sheer bravery where the rock-textured walls symbolise the strength of the film’s protagonist, Tris. Ahsanullah creates a 3D drawing on the floor to give an illusion of height, embodying Tris’s powerful quote: ‘Don’t think, just jump’.

The strong whiff of chocolate from Aliza Shah’s installation was an instant aide-mémoire of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. With her chocolate-textured interior, Shah’s concept was instantly clear —chocolate is not only about taste but rather connects with all other senses.

Stepping into Rabia Allauddin’s Phantom of the Opera, you get a sense of the phantom’s mind. Allauddin aptly replaces the physical matter with the state of imagination. Complementing it with warm lighting, Allauddin turns her installation into a space where the deepest desires and memories prevail.

Yet another exciting space to walk into was Bilal Yousuf’s Lucy — inspired installation. Based on the science fiction thriller, which revolves around the concept of mind over matter, Yousuf’s captivating installation explores the axis of existence of man in the universe.

It is interesting to see these aspiring students be able to think out-of-the-box. The fact that they managed to produce some enthralling pieces in a short period of three weeks, is worthy of praise.

“It’s the first time the department of interior design has put up work of the nature where the studio went through a process of metamorphosis in design, and students produced work of that kind,” shares the course teacher, Sophia Qureshi. “It was indeed a learning endeavour.”

To be able to walk from the ether of the morbid Black Swan, to the intriguing Devil Wears Prada and the glitzy Legally Blonde was in fact refreshing. This makes one wonder — what would it be like to walk into the world of 50 Shades of Grey?

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 15th, 2015

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