Shaker High School ninth-graders Hana Kim and Rui Zheng received third place in the NYSATA annual Olympics of the Visual Arts last week. Their titled piece, “The Unquenchable Thirst” was based on the climate change prompt. Hana and Rui also competed in the “spontaneous on demand” portion of the competition.
The New York State Art Teacher Association annually hosts a creative problem-solving event in which student teams of one or more enter a long-term design solution in one of eight categories and participate in an on-demand design prompt. Teams present a portfolio along with their entry to showcase the research, planning and iterations that led to the final design. See below the full statement regarding their piece.
This friendly and spirited competition among students across the state is a wonderful way for students to interact with other student artists and together celebrate creativity.
Congratulations to Hana and Rui!
Hana Kim and Rui Zheng’s Artist Statement for their titled piece, “The Unquenchable Thirst”:
As soon as we saw this climate change prompt, we were really inspired to take on this project. As freshmen art students, we wanted to participate in this event to gain experience and combine our artistic knowledge with a topic we both care greatly about. We were excited to create a piece that resonated with people and had the opportunity to spark change.
We strove to create something that represented the issue of climate change in a creative and moving way. We focused on a specific aspect of the general crisis: the overwhelming waste of plastic water bottles. Titled “The Unquenchable Thirst,” our project aims to signify how our negligence and ignorance prevents us from satisfying our own thirst for a pure, unsullied environment. 86% of plastic water bottles become litter and waste, which contribute to the 38 billion water bottles in U.S. landfills alone. These bottles result in 2.5 million tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere every single year. To respond to this devastating issue, we have constructed a box structure that allows us to easily layer in depth with plenty of contrasting imagery inside. The thriving and lush environment on the outside with a variety of different heartening plants is heavily juxtaposed with a dull and gloomy interior that showcases what our world is becoming. A sink placed dead-center of the interior shows the presence of a more natural and easily-accessible source of water, yet the individual in the front is ignorant towards it.
