Dahye Lim carefully applies drops of glue to a small shard of glass before carefully placing it onto a growing mass.
As the broken pieces of automobile windshield are transformed into a drop of frozen water, its beautiful blue-green hue is only slightly marred by a few specks of blood, where the young artist has nicked her fingers — suffering for her art, one could say.
The piece, titled Frozen in Time, is among the works making up a student exhibit in the Mary Pratt Gallery at Langley Fine Arts School, which opened on Thursday night. It is held each year to mark Earth Day, which was officially observed on Sunday, April 22.
The assignment offers visual arts teacher Nancy Crawford’s students the opportunity to not only exercise their creativity, but to consider their own impact on the planet.
“We try to put a new spin on it each year,” she said.
But the intent remains the same.
“The goal is to have individual students look at their role in manufacturing waste. What are the issues we have with trash?”
Each student was asked to come up with three sustainable changes they were prepared to make, Crawford explained.
“What’s the garbage they’re producing and what are they prepared to do about it?”
Then the senior (Grade 11 and 12) visual arts students were tasked with choosing a specific man-made material — be it plastic water bottles, styrofoam cups or cardboard cereal boxes — and use it to create a sculpture that looked like an organic, living form.
After receiving the assignment last fall, the students were given five months to collect the items. In the meantime, they were also expected to research the material they’d chosen — how much of it is manufactured and discarded each year.
It is difficult to believe, Crawford said, that the aesthetically pleasing sculptures her students produced, actually came from what is essentially garbage — whether it was old wine bottle corks which were shaved and twisted into conical shapes to create a breathtaking bed of ‘coral’ or mollusk-like forms created from discarded dryer vents.
Or, in the case of Lim and her partner in the project, Soeun Choi — both Grade 12 students — an old windshield transformed into ice.
When the girls first pitched their idea to Crawford, the teacher admitted she had a few misgivings. She advised them to exercise caution as they sought out their materials.
After visiting nine auto wreckers and pitching their plan unsuccessfully, the young artists ventured into a Langley business, where the owner was more receptive to the idea, though his first reaction might have been a little less certain.
“They arrived with rolling suitcases and brandishing hammers,” said Crawford.
“(Dahye) said, ‘I think we scared him.’
“I said, ‘I can believe it,” she laughed.
By the time they’d explained what they hoped to do, he not only gave them permission to take and break the windshields, he gave them the glass at no charge.
In addition to being both conceptually and technically challenging, all of the pieces required a great deal of fine and repetitious work, Crawford said.
“It’s important they realize that sometimes the most creative endeavors have this repetitive task.
“You become your own little assembly line,” she laughed.
In many cases, the sculptures are comprised of hundreds or even thousands of pieces fastened together with thread, pins glue or nails.
“Their innovativeness, their perseverance is extraordinary,” Crawford said. “Some pieces hang from the ceiling and cascade 18 feet.”
Others might cover a 10-foot by 12-foot section of wall.
“I’m definitely delighted with what they’ve done,” said Crawford.
“It’s a stunning show. It really is.”
The Mary Pratt Gallery at Langley Fine Arts School, 9096 Trattle St., is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday. The public is invited to drop by and view the exhibit, which will remain on display until Thursday, May 3.