STORY PREVIEW

The issues we discussed were: Self harm Bullying Social media Stress

The issue we chose to address was Self Harm This is defined as hurting oneself intentionally due to bullying. We chose this issue because it made us feel sad and concern for others

Self harm can affect anyone regardless of age, gender or background, though it is more commonly seen in adolescents and young adults. This issue affects people in many harmful ways such as isolation and not opening up. Their concerns were judgement, lack of mental health support and family support.

We had many ideas and discussed: visual art by creating a hand using clay, red wool and beads to symbolise blood, butterflies to represent freedom and black flowers for empathy.

We chose all of the above, because we hoped that our piece would get people to take action by by sharing the image and remember the self injury awareness day which is the 1st of March, because prior to this project we did not know that date existed and it was during one of the Saturdays when we were deciding on a project we came across it, so to bring about change we chose visual art and spoken word. We envisioned that when the audience heard/saw our piece they will remember the art and the different elements that went into it and share

To create our multidisciplinary piece we decided to create a visual plan, jotting down ideas, researched symbolism, sourced materials and building our piece Our roles and responsibilities were that I would do the material sourcing and build the sculpture with the help of Juanita, and Annie researched symbolism and helped with paper mache, Mum provided emotional support and advice, Nandi provided artistic guidance and mentoring

People were touched by the subject.

100

“ My favourite project ever! So creative, so courageous! There's so much research, empathy, technical skills - it's really unbelievable. Some fantastic artwork to make us think... and act!” “ Very touching project. Current issue with young generation.”

The challenges we faced during our project were deciding what materials we were using for the hand, and how we were going to put it together without it falling (thanks to gravity since the cast was were fragile and the clay was heavier. We tried different methods, using the wire (unfortunately it was too flimsy) decided to use chopsticks as a support! Hammering the nails into wooden board was the next challenge, and it took a lot of work nailing it in with the hammer. The clay cracked, and the hand keeps detaching, but thanks superglue and a lot of hands we did it ! We used our superpowers like being precise and gratefulness to overcome these challenges by thinking carefully about what we are going to do Our project addresses the Global Goal of Good Health and Wellbeing because it is helping us with mental health challenges Our roles and responsibilities were: Angel did all materials sourcing Annie researched symbolism and helped with paper mache Mum provided emotional support and advice Nandi provided artistic guidance and mentoring

MORE THAN 30 DAYS

Good health and well being

It talks about the growing issue of mental health in the younger generation, and that we wanted to raise awareness and for people who are too scared to ask for help.

I shared my response with my friends and teachers. They were quite touched and amazed.

More than 100

By talking about it more frequently, people would be more aware about the growing issue of mental health nowadays, and that we remember to celebrate the 1st of march as Self harm awareness day