Created by: Bec Lewis with Oakleigh State School From: Australia

With primary school students amongst our most passionate environmentalists, this animated work reflects the Oakleigh State School students’ concerns about the planet and their dreams for a brighter future. The work features six animated collages created by the students in collaboration with the artist each exploring a different environmental threat including fire, flood, drought and deforestation. Surrounding the animation are hanging stencilled silhouettes of young environmental protestors waving slogans conceived by the students. The animation with its sounds of protest invites viewers to walk into the work and discover the source of their concerns.

In groups, the students identified and researched looming environmental threats, before developing narrative to represent each of them. With the artists guidance and materials, the students selected, created and printed collage materials for their narratives, using stop motion technique to produce the animations.

Do you hear the students worry, apprehension and outrage? Will you listen and answer their call?

Our Future, Our Planet is part of The Schools Challenge Project which brings a youthful lens to the festival’s art/science program. Students from four selected Queensland schools are paired up with local artists to bring their creative and inquisitive artwork ideas to life. 

About the Creator

Bec Lewis is a self-taught print maker, seamstress and collage artist living and working in Ipswich. A passion for environmental sustainability informed by a degree in Environmental Management lies at the heart of her creative practice. With a focus on reuse, her material palette includes reclaimed timber, vintage books, old magazines, natural fabrics and water-based inks.

In 2018 Bec won the Queensland Regional Art Awards – Digital Art Prize and has worked since as a touring artist with the Flying Arts Alliance delivering printmaking and stop motion collage workshops to students from Brisbane to Biloela. She recently undertook a mentorship with Dr Kellie O’Dempsey for the inHabited public art project in Ipswich to create a site-specific textile and stop motion installation exploring the expectation of domestic labour and the mental load placed on women.

 

More Information

View Bec’s Instagram.