A potential oil spill along an expanded Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline has inspired some emotional art by a group of Burnaby students.
Byrne Creek Community School art teacher Judy McLeod and social studies teacher Angela Woolf tasked a number of their classes with exploring in art what a spill from the expanded pipeline, tank farm or tanker ship would mean for Burnaby.
“The kids just came up with these amazing ideas,” McLeod said.
Among the 180 images is a whale spouting diluted bitumen from its blowhole, a sinister looking Kinder Surprise egg labeled Kinder Morgan Surprise and a face with multiple eyes, ears, noses and mouths, each leaking oil.
“This can represents how we are obsessed with fossil fuels and profit, and that our greed is so strong we drown in it,” reads the artist’s statement attached.
Students in grades 8 to 12 took part in the class project and their work was displayed at both the school’s dance recital and at Burnaby’s Aboriginal Day celebration at Burnaby Public Library’s Bob Prittie branch Wednesday.
A quick response code is attached to each image, linking viewers to related videos, news articles and websites.
“We told them to find something that represented or inspired their art, some kind of connection,” said Byrne Creek librarian Wendy Amy, who collaborated with McLeod and Woolf on the assignment.
Amy also helped plot the students’ art and their stance on the pipeline expansion onto an interactive map of communities along the Trans Mountain pipeline route.
Woolf was unapologetic about the political nature of the assignment.
“In social studies we take on politics; I think in art they take on politics too,” she said. “Certainly the Kinder Morgan pipeline is an issue that affects Burnaby, and the students live in Burnaby, so it’s fair game in my opinion.”
Woolf said she was upfront with students about her position on the pipeline expansion – she is opposed to it – but presented the pros and cons and allowed students to make up their own minds.
In the end, about three or four students came out in support of the expansion, she said.
“All you have to do is defend your position. That’s what socials is all about,” she said.
