Future of Canada Commission Artwork: Large Commission Artwork Reflecting the Future of our World
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- Art Print Drop: www.flanzella.com/
Join me as I create a commission collage artwork for the inspiring Future of Canada Project! In this project, my commissioner is traveling to classrooms across the country, engaging with students and asking them to envision what Canada could look like in 2080 if we addressed climate change, achieved truth and reconciliation, solved health crises, and built inclusive education systems.
In this video, I’ll visit one of these classrooms, gather inspiration from the students, and transform their visionary ideas into my own unique collage art. This piece will then become part of a traveling show across Canada, showcasing the collective dreams of our future leaders.
Don't miss out on this creative journey! Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe to follow along as we reimagine the future of Canada together.
This piece ends up being a rather large commission artwork, and I’ll take you through how I created this piece. It was an interesting task to make art reflecting the future of our world. My art is often critical, but in this piece it had to be positive. Overall the results stunned me, as I was able to bring in so many messages about my views on the future of Canada.
Learn more about the project here: future-of-canada.mcmaster.ca/
If you are in Canada, keep an eye out for dates on when the show will visit your Province or Territory.
#FutureOfCanada #CollageArt #FlanzellaArt #ClimateChange #TruthAndReconciliation #InclusiveEducation #HealthSolutions #ArtJourney #TravelingArtShow
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OFFICIAL ARTIST STATEMENT:
In "Seeds of Tomorrow", I invite viewers to contemplate the intersection of past, present, and future as we navigate the path towards a harmonious existence with nature. This piece, composed using vintage magazines, serves as a visual tapestry of reflection, urging us to glean wisdom from other eras while forging ahead into an uncertain future.
In the classroom I attended, the majority of the artworks depicted an abundance of food and nature reclaiming our neighborhoods. I aimed to capture this theme in my piece. Here, we witness a new family transitioning from the "old way of life" (characterized by car ownership, single-family homes, extensive roads, and processed foods) to embrace the "new" way of living, (characterized by smaller vehicles, walkable cities, manual labor, and abundant greenery). In this envisioned future, coexistence with the natural world becomes paramount.
The composition features a towering wall of leaves, symbolizing the abundance and resilience of nature, its ability to grow back over the concrete world we have created. Within this verdant embrace, figures are depicted engaged in timeless acts of farming, sewing, and building-a reminder of the foundational skills and values that sustained communities in days gone by.
The juxtaposition of vintage magazine imagery against this backdrop serves as a poignant commentary on the complexities of progress. While we may yearn for the simplicity of a bygone era, we must confront the inherent limitations and biases of historical perspectives. The lack of inclusivity in these publications underscores the need for critical examination and selective adaptation of past practices.
Through this artwork, I challenge viewers to embrace a nuanced understanding of history-one that acknowledges both the achievements and shortcomings of past generations. By learning from our collective heritage, we can glean insights into sustainable living practices and cultivate a future that honors the delicate balance between human civilization and the natural world.
In essence, "Seeds of Tomorrow" serves as a visual meditation on the cyclical nature of time and the importance of informed retrospection in shaping our path forward. As we confront the challenges of the present and gaze towards the horizon of tomorrow, may we draw inspiration from the wisdom of the past, while remaining steadfast in our commitment to forging a more harmonious future for generations to come. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
If anyone is interested in reading the full artist statement, I have added it to the bottom of the video description :) I ended up calling this piece "Seeds of Tomorrow". I thought it covered the idea of planting seeds for the future to be better.
Also check out the print drop here: www.flanzella.com/shop/new
Congratulations on the commission Leah! What an interesting and challenging project. ❤
Thank you so much! I just dropped it off and they loved it 😍 so that made my day.
What a fantastic project to be a part of. This turned out amazing, Leah. Great work, as always!
Congratulations Leah🎉. I love your work.
Thank you so much! 😊
Leah congratulations on this really important commision,and to be part of an exhibition that is touring your home country asking a really important question about how we see our future is a brilliant idea,and I like that it was a creative challenge for you in that it had to be an optimistic piece. But we do sometimes look at the current world and long for a time when things were better,simpler,a kind of needful nostalgia. Great that you got to interact with the kids and be inspired by their thoughts on how they saw the future. I sense this project is about a legacy through art,but also future proofing through art a vision of the future.Using upcycled images of the past to invoke a future world is a great idea. Listening to you talk as you began to build the piece and you asking for ideas for a title for the finished piece,what about "Past Future Utopia" came into my mind as I watched and listened to you,drawing on the better aspects of our past to envision a better furure. (matt)P..s I loved the Big cat face image, you have to create a piece around that it's such a striking image maybe have it as the centre of a piece and build out from it,but I could see so much potential in that image.
I love the way you've said "drawing on better aspects of our past to envision a better future". It summarizes this entire piece for sure. There is a lottttt of bad from our past, and lots in our current world. It's why it made it such an interesting topic to create art on. I bet a lot of artists could make a lot of interesting artworks on this.
I like your name suggestion! Thanks for watching.
Congratulations on being selected for this project! Thanks for showing the process start to finish. I see this piece as learning from history, applying what works and discarding what didn't work. The title that came to my mind was "Past, Present, Perfect."
You mentioned having images of people doing weird things 8:30 and my first thought was that maybe 50 years from now, unique people are more accepted for their individuality rather than being ostracized. That might be a good piece to do at some point!
That's a great way of phrasing it and is exactly my intent with it. With every decision for the future, the past needs to be weighed into the equation. And I like the name idea 😁
Haha! I love that idea. Maybe I'll save them all and start collecting more.
What a great choice was made in selecting you. You rock… from a 75 year old collage artist fan from Montréal.
Aww thank you so much Linda, I'm glad you like it. Keep an eye out for when it tours next year, maybe it'll be coming to Montreal!
"Back to the Future" comes to mind, but I don't know about copyright infringement... Fantastic artwork, and congrats on the commission!
Funny that this is actually the first name I thought of but didn't know if it made sense if it had no context of the movie or not! I am so glad you like it :D
Awesome piece and love you sharing the story about taking on this commission! It really was inspiring to see how you were able to go in a larger scale without just printing the images bigger. The greenery background was a terrific idea and I think your piece really shows the story you intended. Once again, thank you for sharing your experiences, they get me excited to create and teach me something new every time.
Thank you! Yea I definitely knew I wanted to keep with the original papers when I got the commission since it'll be a permanent collection, lasting mark of my work! I'm glad you liked it.
What a cool project! I'm interested to see the other works this inspiring teacher has prompted with this important theme.
In my opinion, the problem with using vintage magazines is their extreme lack of inclusivity. You rarely see bright, happy images of folks of colour wearing big smiles and riding shiny bikes. I find often in collages using vintage material it leans heavily toward being white-centric. Its hard to make positive commentary on topics like truth and reconciliation that way.
I don't mean to be critical, this piece is beautiful, but I did notice the images of people of colour used are darker/less vibrant and depict them working in fields where as the white people are engaged in leisure activities. It could be read a certain way that's not intended.
100% agree with you, I'm covering this topic within the artist statement as it's important to highlight. The magazines themselves hold the lens of a white male gaze. I'm going to talk about those limitations and how the focus is on environmentalism.
Congrats! I love the piece!
Thank you! Cheers!
Hi Leah, I'm only halfway through your vid and loving it so far. FYI: "Fairy Pie" on your site is mislabled as "Sleepiing Taj". I didn't want people to miss out on that beautiful piece (of pie 🙃)
OMG THANK YOU. I've fixed it. Thanks.
back to the beginning of what? colonialism?
Yeah, this might be unintentional and is very much a baked-in weakness of her methods, but her vision of what Canada's future looks like if we "do everything right" is overwhelmingly white, and very conspicuously missing any First Nations people. As settlers, this is something we *really* need to be cognizant of, as even when it's inadvertent, it makes a very specific, very strong statement.
Frankly, in this, the Year of Y'all's Lord 2024, it's a necessity for white people who get tapped for projects like this to ask themselves if they're *really* the right person to craft these types of visions of the future.
In the artist statement I'm writing, I cover the implications and connotations of old magazines and how it's impossible to make decisions without first analyzing the past. The past, present, and future are not going to be 100% positive, but there are things in the past we did better than we do today. Given there are 13 artists creating for the show, the pieces will cover different topics, not all the topics in each piece. My classroom wanted to focus on environmental impact so that's what this piece is about.
I guess it just shows the flaws in the process of the project itself. But I'm happy to be a part of something that is finally a positive message after so much negativity. This piece is VERY CLEARLY not about colonialism.
@@flanzella Is the artist statement going to address the fact that your vision of Canada's future has no First Nations people, and the fact that all the white people are engaging in leisure while the only people engaging in labor are the very few POC? Because right now, your piece is colonialism made manifest.