Trinity School is delighted to be taking part in the Rivers of the World project again, a continuation of the project we completed last year for the British Council.   Our team of year 9 & 10 Art and DT ambassadors Jai Chupreecha, Sebastian Goodwin, Freya Marsh, Grace Hammond, Natasha Shears and Sophie Taylor all worked together to create the piece and their explanation of the process is below. 

In this piece, we have used a variety of different media to create a work of art relating to polluted rivers. The selection of media we used helped to create texture and interest throughout the piece. It also helped to distinguish the river from the rest of the aspects, as it was the main focus; the shift from tissue paper to acrylic showing the deterioration of the purity.

We used the sink and the plug as a metaphor of the environment literally “going down the drain” as it is destroyed. It also represents the elaborate beauty of nature that has been affected negatively by the large amounts of manmade contamination. The painting style we used throughout different parts of the piece also represents the complexity of the ecosystem, and how the thoughtless actions of man are corrupting and flattening it. This last point is then shown by the cell-shaded houses. 

The types of media we have used are pins and thread, laser cut plastic fish, coloured tissue paper, watercolour paint and general plastic waste. Pins and thread were used to create the silhouette of the snowy mountains. The laser cut plastic fish put across a symbolic meaning of innocent death and the fact that they are arranged similarly to the symbol of Ouroboros, which represents infinity, and no end to the cycle of death and destruction. The plastic represents the waste created by society over the generations that have lived and polluted.

We were inspired by the mountain ranges of Nepal and the architecture that sits within. As we were motivated by this, we used the cherry blossom to portray the hidden beauty of the country. We also want to convey the negatives of the human activities that lead to water pollution and its consequences.