Moodboard

Having read the play twice now, I have been thinking a lot about the sort of visuals that it conjures-up for me. Given that the play is set over 2000 years ago, I think this is a fantastic opportunity to be quite free with the costumes, not being constrained by historical accuracy, but at the same time not noticeably taking it out of its original context.
As I was reading it, to me the imagery that sprung-up was quite deco; geometric patterns, big angular blocky shapes, lots of gold, but weathered surfaces, a bit Babylonian, a bit Egyptian, a bit Masonic. All these aesthetics rose to popularity in the 1900s-1930s, shortly after the play was written, and therefore I think it is an aesthetic style that ties-in nicely with both the era of the play and the era in which the play was written. I don't want the aesthetics to be slavishly deco, and I think I will draw influence from quite a variety of sources, with art nouveau playing a part too, but I would quite like it to encompass the zeitgeist of that era. Thick blocky, clean lines. Angular shapes. Decaying opulence.

After dwelling on these concepts for a day or two, I headed to the library to get some books out in order to help create my moodboard. Although a dishearteningly conventional way to start my ilne of enquiry, it seemed very natural to look at the work of Gustav Klimt as a starting point- looking at his use of gold, his use of blocky shapes, and his portrayal of women. I don't want my final designs to be obviously Klimt-ian, but I think i would be an error not to at least start to look at his way of working. So I looked at a few Klimt books, a few on deco furniture and architecture, a few of jewellery, a few on Art Nouveau, and one on Egyptian ornament.

Below you will see a picture of my mood board, scanned-in from my sketchbook, the colours haven't translated particularly accurately but you get the general idea. I even included some copper leaf to try and convey this idea of metal which I have been toying with.  I really like the idea of using metal as part of the costumes, and I will look into this in greater detail in the following weeks.