Re:ACTIVATE Aspiring Artists 2022Re:ACTIVATE Aspiring Artists is an annual competition open to youth aged between 5 and 18 in Canterbury. Entrants this year were asked to respond to the SCAPE Public Art Season 2022 theme of Sweat Equity, considering the sub-themes of labour and the body, virtuality, and obsolescence. There was an incredibly high level of creativity and sophisticated ideas displayed across all the submissions, and SCAPE Public Art is delighted to announce the winners for 2022.

Re:ACTIVATE Sculpture, Junior Liana Martin

The Tree of Work The junior winner of the sculpture category is Liana Martin, age 10 from Christchurch East School The Tree of Work represents lives, jobs, moments in time; some joyous, some miserable. Contained within separate bubbles, people are depicted doing different kinds of work, in separate worlds the way that people can be when they’re doing their jobs. Drawing on the theme of labour and the body, the work considers the different impacts that different jobs can have. 

Re:ACTIVATE Sculpture, Senior Oli Aikawa
Wheelbarrow of a Bag of Rocks The senior winner of the sculpture category is Oli Aikawa, age 18 from Christ’s College.Inspired by the artist’s own struggle with OCD, this artwork speaks to the toll that mental hard work can take on the mind, body, and spirit. For Oli, OCD can feel like carrying 20 people’s responsibilities, having to keep pushing a heavy wheelbarrow forward with a bag full of rubbish and rocks on your back. But while this distraught, vaguely inhuman figure is struggling with the weight, there is potential for hope that the rocks will one day make him strong.This year the Re:ACTIVATE competition has been extended to include a new mural category, thanks to generous support from Resene. The winning students will use Resene paints to create their murals over the course of a workshop at Tūranga Central Library, which will then be displayed on billboards in Hagley Park.

Re:ACTIVATE Mural Adele Sherborne Ccino & AshAdele Sherborne, age 12 from St Andrew's College is one of the two.

 Re:ACTIVATE Mural winners for 2022.This artwork explores the concept of people spending a large proportion of their time online, and pushes it further, imagining that an entire digital person might form their own personality and identity. Ccino & Ash shows two people: Ccino, on the left, existing in the real world, while Ash on the right is a virtual human, created by the games and websites Ccino uses most.

Re:ACTIVATE Mural Secret Ainsworth-Mason
FocusSecret Ainsworth-Mason, age 13 from Chisnallwood Intermediate is one of the two Re:ACTIVATE Mural winners for 2022.Working within the sub-theme of digital identity, Focus depicts an unreal digital female figure within a computer monitor, representing the way that some people inhabit a different identity when they’re online. The chaos within the computer’s hard drive reflects on the leading role technology plays in our lives while issues like pollution and climate change go ignored.Along with its industry partners, SCAPE Public Art mentors the winning artists to produce their designs for public display in Hagley Park. 

All Re:ACTIVATE artworks will be available to view for the duration of SCAPE Public Art Season 2022. Concepts from the shortlisted Re:ACTIVATE submissions will be on display at Tūranga Central Library throughout the season.“The Aspiring Artists programme is in its seventh year, and it is going from strength to strength,” says Helen Trappitt, director of Lewis Bradford Consulting Engineers, a long-term sponsor of Re:ACTIVATE. “We love that with the support of enthusiastic industry partners, the winning students will gain real insight into the world of not just art and design, but also engineering and fabrication.”

All Re:ACTIVATE artworks will be available to view for the duration of SCAPE Public Art Season 2022. Concepts from the shortlisted Re:ACTIVATE submissions will be on display at Tūranga Central Library throughout the season.

“We have been blown away by the level of talent and imagination to come out of all our Re:ACTIVATE entries this year,” says SCAPE Executive Director Deborah McCormick. “It’s so exciting to help young people bring their concepts to life, and we are very proud to be a part of growing the creative sector by giving opportunities to young aspiring artists.”

SCAPE Public Art Season 2022 runs from 5 November 2022 to 29 January 2023.