The Digital Gallery: Exhibition - Protect our Mangrove

In 2018, while I lived in Sydney, in partnership with Art Spark Studio, I led an ink painting workshop titled “Protect Our Mangrove” with the City of Canada Bay. Before the art workshop, an expert showed the participants and me around the mangrove in Kokoda Park. With a root sample and a bit of water, she demonstrated how the mangrove’s root works like a snorkel. The ingenuity of nature struck me. 

Digitally edited drawings of native flora and videos of the shore of the Paramatta River are integrated into this short film. The exploratory and thoughtful approach of this work explores ways to integrate animation and visual storytelling for the public space. 

As a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Artist, my concern is for my art to be accessible to a wide audience. My signature limited colour palette, the slow unravelling of the images, and the meditative music of my short film aims at engaging the local community, children and adults alike, while using the foyer of The Learning Space. I hope while watching this video that you will be inspired by the beauty of the mangrove you live so close to. May you be inspired to connect with it and look after it. 

- Sofie Dieu