A Grade 12 learner at Redhill School recently won silver for the artwork he submitted to the 2018 Ocean Awareness Contest.
Kamau Nganga’s artwork was one of 1 700 entries in the senior division of the competition, which prompts learners to explore the impact of climate change through visual art, film, music, poetry or prose. Included in his prize is a $1 000 (just over R13 500) scholarship.
The contest was created by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs in 2012 to teach teenagers about the importance of conserving our oceans and waterways and to create positive change for our planet. Thousands of young artists, poets, writers and film-makers from across the globe send through powerful entries, hoping to be awarded a prize.
Each entry involves lots of research on ocean conservation and the impact that human living has on our oceans. Marisa Maré, the head of visual art at Redhill School said, “The Ocean Awareness Contest is a worthwhile educational experience. It stretches my students as they think about pertinent environmental issues.”
“Kamau’s artwork is very hard-hitting. His rationale, which describes the human race as an interplanetary plague, puts the responsibility for our environmental issues squarely on our shoulders. It’s a very powerful artwork,” she added.
In Kamau’s rationale for the artwork, he said, “In my opinion, earth is beyond saving. Due to the nature of our species, I believe we will bleed earth dry of all life and resources and move on to the next planet and do the same there – like an interplanetary plague…The world is dying and to me, it looks terminal, so we better get comfortable in its dying days.”
This is the third consecutive year in which Redhill School art learners have entered the competition. In the 2017 competition, Claire Donnelly and Grace Alter took home a Merit Award and a Bronze award respectively for their pieces.”
Maré and her art students have taken the principles of the Bow Seat Competition and extended them. The learners each designed their own pencil bags, to the theme of Ocean Awareness, using biodegradable materials. These have sold at school events and the students are now approaching environmental organisations, with a view to establishing a partnership that will see the sale of these pencil bags generate funds for the organisations.
“This project is bigger than school. It’s a journey of environmental advocacy, and it gives the students an opportunity to make connections with the wider world,” concluded Maré.
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