CO2RE Artists: Selina Wagner
The Day we Cleaned the Sky
Imagine looking back from the future 500 years from now, celebrating the day we successfully removed greenhouse gases from our atmosphere.
Selina Wagner’s project will devise a festival of the future, to look back positively on actions we are taking now.
The main part of the project will be to create an animated legend telling the story of our past, when we all worked together and overcame the challenges of climate change. This animation will be inspired by creation myths from around the world, telling a poignant and relatable story.
This piece will be informed by workshops with school children, in Selina’s local area within Stirlingshire, where she would like to uncover what GGR means to young people and families. With their help, she’d like to build the festival – what would the traditions be? Would we have decorations?
Selina’s particularly interested in exploring the public perception of GGR, climate anxiety and how positive thinking can help shape the way for a healthier future.
The final aim of her project will be to hold an exhibition in Stirling, displaying the work the children made, illustrations and working drawings from the research as well as the final animation.
Top left images: selections of images by Selina Wagner
Bottom left videos: clips from Crow Moon and Spindrift by Selina Wagner
About the Artist - Selina Wagner
Selina Wagner grew up on the remote islands of Orkney, where her parents had a small farm. After years of battling with the wind and semi-wild animals, she decided to make the move to Edinburgh and study animation at the Edinburgh College of Art. Her degree film, ‘Takuskanskan’ was screened at many festivals and won several awards including the Craft Award at the British Animation Awards.
In 2005 she set up Blobina Animations and has created short films, commercials and educational pieces for many clients including the Moredun Foundation, National Trust for Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland and the BBC.
Inspired by folklore and the natural world, Selina has also created several of her own short films including ‘Crow moon’, ‘A dog by your side’ and ‘Spindrift’ which have all been funded by organisations such as Channel 4, the British Film Council and the Scottish Film Talent Network. They have been screened at festivals worldwide and picked up awards along the way.
As well as working as director on a children’s series, she is currently also writing a screenplay for her debut feature film, supported by Screen Scotland.