Kaumudi West
(she/her)
Extending Design
The design proposal for my extended project is centred on a study of living coral.
Living reef environments explode with colour, movement, and energy. Where my main graduate collection reflected the pale, skeletal stillness of bleached coral, dwelling in silence and loss, I intend that my extended project will turn towards life and the vibrancy of coral in its living state.
It is the tension between the two states – life and death that will be displayed in my two bodies of work.
Central to my research is the phenomenon of coral fluorescence, produced by algae living within the animal’s tissues. I plan to extend my design to include rich, contrasting fabrics echoing the vivid coral animated by the current in the depths of the dark ocean.
I intend to develop my skills in the use of fabric manipulation, intertwining contrasting colours and adding stitching, to bring visual curiosity, and display the reflective dimension of living coral into my samples.
I plan to visualise this extended project through accessories — hats, handbags, and interior objects — a decision that allows the work to move fluidly across contexts while retaining its visual intensity.
My aim is that the life and vibrancy captured in these pieces is not simply decorative; it is a quiet argument for preservation, a reminder of what bleaching erases, rendered in colour, light, and form.
Still Life in the Ocean
My project explores coral, reflecting the duality of beauty and decay found in the bleached architectural forms that lie beneath the ocean’s surface.
My interest deepened through primary photographic research and a growing understanding of coral’s vital role within the marine ecosystem. Coral reefs are an endangered environment — as global warming strips them of life through the process of bleaching, it brings with it a silent death to marine life and the gradual loss of oxygen from our air. There is a profound and unsettling beauty in this loss, and it is this tension that sits at the heart of my work.
My practice began with an observation of line and structure: the rigid, skeletal forms of bleached coral, stripped back to their bare architectural essence. From there, I moved into an exploration of contrast — in tone, colour, and texture — between the living and the dead.
I have experimented with a range of lightweight materials, alongside contrasting, heavier fabrics. I have used manipulation techniques to recreate coral’s organic structures. I have combined stitching techniques to produce sculptural textile samples that capture both fragility and the strength of their form.
Working within a neutral palette has been a deliberate choice — one that honours the quiet, ghostly quality of bleached coral and allows the complexity of texture and construction to speak. I have chosen to incorporate black reflecting my early monochromatic drawings to portray the underlying death of coral as a living organism, one that is fragile yet strong.
My final collection is delicate, crystalline and architectural, encapsulating the inherent beauty found within decay.
This body of work is a response to environmental loss — an attempt to hold something precious and disappearing still, and to find, in its skeletal remains, a reason to look more carefully at what we stand to lose.
