A Celebration of Community and Creativity

The young people of Morawa were happy to show off the fruits (and vegetables, pasta and spices) of their labour at a community celebration of their culinary creations for the AWESOME Creative Challenge program on Friday night.

AWESOME Artists in residence Louise Elscot and Gina Knight shared their skills and knowledge over a two-week food art project ‘FEAST.’

The celebration showcased jelly crystal paintings, bread and beetroot wildflowers, rice paper mountain sculptures and a large-scale installation landscape of Morawa.

The highlight of the celebration was the destruction of ‘Monty’ a giant sheep-shaped piñata who was created throughout the workshops and filled with lollies.

Young people were encouraged to explore food beyond simply consumption and consider food as artistic material.

“We spent the first week experimenting with different types of foods, and how we could use them as sculpture, and also creating our own paint from thinned flour and water pastes and dyes such as beetroot juice, carrot juice, food dyes and spices like turmeric and paprika,” said Louise.

“Our food sculptures naturally evolved throughout the fortnight and began looking like little landscape installations which inspired us to work towards a large-scale installation of the township and landscape of Morawa.”

The artwork will be featured in an exhibition at the AWESOME International Arts Festival for Bright Young Things.

The 2008 Creative Challenge ‘Feast’ project visits 10 remote communities in the Goldfields (Kalgoorlie, Wiluna and Leonora), Mid West (Mullewa, Morawa and Pia Wadjarri), Kimberley (Jarlmadangah Community), Gascoyne (Carnarvon) The Wheatbelt (Lake Grace) and one metropolitan residency at Medina Primary School in Kwinana.

Creative Challenge uses arts projects to encourage young people in regional and remote communities to explore their identity, build skills and express what is unique about their community.