Youth Art Engagement Project – 3/3

21Dec11

Welcome to our final instalment of our Youth Art Engagement Project! Today we will be featuring artist statements from Larissa and Andrea.

 The following projects and artist statements are pieces that were created by each facilitator and the Program Coordinator that reflect a personal response to the sexual exploitation of children and youth throughout our communities.

Title: It’s Time, by Larissa Maxwell

Medium/Materials: Spoken Word, voice 

It’s Time..

          To address the elephant in the room.

We might be looking, but are we really seeing?

          The babies, the children, the youth who are being

          Sold

And then bought

Abused

And exploited

 

It’s Time..

To start calling this what it really is, I have a few suggestions

Present day slavery

Captivity of the vulnerable

The prey of grocery store predators, high society abusers, and online slavers

It’s Time..

To look in the mirror- is this really someone else’s problem?

Or do we all hold a share in the blame?

For over sexualizing an entire society

For telling young men to get theirs at the cost of everyone else

For showing young women they are only good for one thing

For normalizing violence- think about it for a second…

cuz tank tops should be called wife beaters

Great things naturally should be called pimp

If something’s sweet, it makes sense to call it dope

Does that make sense to you?

 

It’s Time…

          To do something

To say enough is enough and stand up

          To inspire generations to use their VOICE

          To make the choice

 

Cuz It’s Time..

          To stop buying sex

To stop demanding

To step out of self centered living

To see the vulnerable with compassion instead of sexual appetite

It’s time…

To recognize our part

To from here on out refuse to participate

To revolutionize core fundamental premises of our society

          To give every child a chance in this world…

 

It’s time

It’s time

It’s TIME

This spoken word piece is inspired by my own sense of purpose at this point in our employment. It’s often overwhelming to face in the world and within myself the issues and factors that are breeding grounds for exploitation. I am often frustrated by my own buy in to certain systems, language, and ideas that cause such dehumanization of others. It’s time for me to deal with I, both inwardly and outwardly, and play my part in stopping the mistreatment of the vulnerable.

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Title: Obstacles, by Andrea Krakan

Medium/materials:  Sculpture, Molding Clay

The piece I have created is a representation of overcoming obstacles. This piece was created using molding clay, water and clay tools for shaping and detailing. I hoped to represent an individual who is facing numerous barriers, as with many people who are facing sexual exploitation. The idea with the sides of the clay looking almost like mountains was to show the barriers we all have, and the large tear shaped structure in the middle represents the person, and the reason behind representing them as a tear is purposeful. Where there is exploitation, there is often pain. Where there is success, there is happiness. Often we as humans reflect pain and happiness with tears, tears of joy or tears of sorrow. It is interesting to me that our representation of opposite emotions is sometimes the same. Each mountain or barrier that is shown depicts that very paradox once again. In order to feel love we have to understand hate, and hateful things. In order to understand strength we must feel weakness or vulnerability. To understand hope we must feel despair. TO feel powerful we must feel powerless sometimes. Last, to understand faith we must feel helpless as well. I write the words on the outside of the mountains to representing having to overcome barriers and obstacles to feel the rewarding things found on the outside. The important thing to realize is the size of the tear shape as it is large for a reason. No matter how large or overpowering our barriers may be, we as individuals, no matter the size of our pain are always bigger and stronger than our obstacles, which is why we have the power to overcome them and acknowledge that our failures alongside our success make us who we are, and we need both sides of emotions to understand our times of failure and our times of success.

This was a glimpse of the hard work that our workshop facilitators prepare for before delivering it to thousands of youth across BC. In particular, YAEP will be delivered to different groups and schools in Vancouver this year. Thank you everyone who read this – we really hope you enjoyed the showcase of our “behind the scenes” projects.  Please comment and share your thoughts on the pieces that our team have created.

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