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 devises a festival of the future, to look back positively on actions we are taking now.
Her focus 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.
Her piece is informed by workshops with school children, in Selina’s local area within Stirlingshire, where she uncovered what GGR meant to young people and families, and helped create ideas for the festival.
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.
Her final aim is 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.
Images: selection from The Day we Cleaned the Sky by Selina Wagner
Videos: clips from Crow Moon and Spindrift by Selina Wagner
Reclaiming Hope, Removing Carbon
Selina Wagner’s work-in-progress of The Day we Cleaned the Sky, was exhibited as part of Reclaiming Hope, Removing Carbon at the Bristol Botanic Gardens in June 2026.
Inside an Afrikan Rondoval, Selina’s installation expanded on an animated folktale, developed in response to working with school children.
Inside the space, paintings brought to life creatures imagined by the children – beings that inhabited a future world. While above you, sculpted swifts sweep across the ceiling in murmuration, creating a sense of movement, gathering and collective energy.
The work draws on folktale traditions from around the world, but instead of retelling the past, it imagines a future memory. Through workshops with young people, the project asks what greenhouse gas removal might mean to the next generation – not just as a scientific concept, but as part of everyday life and storytelling.
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.
Images: Photos by Hanieh Shabahang
Drawings from P6 classes at Dunblane school, where they considered positive steps they could take to clean the sky.
In the first workshop children came up with their own GGR machines, including a giant cat robot, that could go into space and suck up all the carbon. In the second workshop they thought of ideas of how to celebrate when we successfully cleaned the sky.
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.