Dulwich school winners in Royal Society of Biology competition after watching Netflix show

A group of 45 students in Year 7 from a Dulwich school are winners in a national competition with an art piece highlighting bleached coral reefs.

The students from Alleyn’s School in Townley Road took part in this year’s BioArtAttack competition held by the Royal Society of Biology, with their piece entitled Clay Corals.

Pupil Trisha Aiyar, aged 11, said: “I really enjoyed the coral project because it allowed me to delve into the world of sculpturing, a fairly new skill for me, allowing me to get to grips with the corals’ intricacy and beauty.

“Also, this piece of corals was very heartfelt because we made sure the corals were white, instead of multi-coloured to represent the pollutants and heat in the sea that is destroying and bleaching our beautiful corals.”

The students learned to make clay forms, fired and glazed in white. It was intended to visibly show what a bleached coral reef might look like on display in the school, using projected colour images to represent the life before the death.

Their art teacher, Joanne Platten, said: “After watching Chasing Coral on Netflix I wanted to do a piece of art to raise awareness of this issue.

“Art is a great tool for activism and raising awareness on all sorts of issues and I’m so pleased this project has had some recognition.

“The pupils really enjoyed the clay-work and many were unaware of the severity of this problem and why we need our coral reefs.

“Climate change is something I am working hard at integrating into my schemes and cross curricular learning is a personal passion of mine.”

Pictured top: Clay Corals, by the Alleyn’s School Year 7 students (Picture: Joanne Platten)