Anti-poverty Week Banner development 2017

Published on 12 October 2017

The back story...

We are a group of young artists from the City of Hobart’s Youth Arts and Recreation Centre who gathered for this project to make a stand on poverty. The issue was personal for us and also affected our peers. Some of us left home at a young age and even had experiences of living in shelters, and some commonly experienced people sheltering on the streets and knew of peers at school who were struggling with homelessness. Together we talked about what our own experience and perspective on poverty was, and explored resources and other awareness campaigns and artist representations on the issue.

The information that had the most significant impression on us was Rutger Bregman’s investigation into research on the causes of poverty and his assertion that lack of “cash, not character” caused people to become stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty. He thought a basic income guarantee was the most cost effective solution on a large scale.

So we began the design process by talking about how to communicate this idea, to represent the difference between money and no money, opportunity and adversity, hope and hopelessness. With a talented skill base of artists: illustrators, photographers, graphic designer and even a filmmaker, we decided collage was the best approach.

We juxtaposed drawings of objects of necessity versus sentimental objects that money can buy, the valued possessions that make life rich and give us a sense of security, things we often take for granted. The narrow length of the banners created a perfect opportunity to present the flip side of the issue.

Find out more about Anti-poverty Week here: Anti-poverty week website

This project shows how important it is for young people to have the opportunity to make their voice and vision heard.