Youth, 2023

Size: 185cm x 70cm x 60cm

This cardboard artwork is a sculpture based on my youngest son jumping up and trying to reach the stars.

Where are we and where do we want to end up as individuals, a society, and a planet?

This cardboard sculpture is designed to be presented jumping off its plinth and out of the contained metaphorical long grass. This grass grows alongside a scattering of wild plants made from coffee cups and their plastic lids, it also contains the by-products of fast fashion and disposable technology. This sculpture moves gently in relation to the ebb and flow of the environment it is placed in. The kinetic feature of the work combines with the delicate cardboard material to emphasise how precarious the aspiration of hope and reaching for the stars can be for our younger generation.

When this artwork is fully realised the sculpture will be part of an installation piece that sees him jumping up into the air to reach one of over 500 origami paper stars that I’ve made. All the stars contain the printed word ‘hope’ in multiple languages, hope is universal, and children are our best chance for this.