Peta Anne Photography

Dr Rudi Scheitz-Zlinger - The artist has used an extensive array of visual metaphors to create this barbed though stunning work of social commentary.

The scene is dominated by the representation of the owl, a usually avuncular and non-threatening pedagogue imbued with wisdom. However on this occasion the partially concealed second character and his only visible eye imparts a sense of malice and reminds us that this is in reality a hunter and a killer, a cold and calculating bird of prey.

The anthropomorphic rendition of children as bins is more a reflection on the value in which they are regarded by the system rather than of their real worth in society. Their apparent “sameness” and onward march into the dark tunnel ahead further reduces their individuality and adds to a sense of powerlessness and foreboding.

The whole scene is viewed from above by the “small man” whose restricted vision allows him to see only movement within the system and not the forces at play as intimated by the expressions of the dominant characters. His diminutive size and blandness reinforces his lack of influence.

There is a sense of darkness to the image,particularly in the foreground (the present) with false brightness of the infrastructure into which the dark tunnel passes (the future). It is devoid of the usual visual markings and signs found in a modern society, and the only language displayed is scrawled and ambiguous.

This piece is an ascerbic remark on the politicisation of the education process and the social impact of the resulting reduced literacy within our children and our failure to address it as individual members of our society. It is a leading example of the new genre of altered landscapes as they influence our thinking and role in society, not to be confused with other examples which gatecrash the genre and are merely cries for help from the warped and conflicted souls of the artists (eg Bins 1.1 The Circle of Confusion by Merv French).