The year 11 Burnside High School student’s work was the overall winner of the “Earth Guardians” concept art competition, run by the Massey University College of Creative Arts and prestigious design company, Weta Workshop.
The design also won the industry-selected ultimate concept artist award. It took out the top spot above 300 other submissions made by young people across New Zealand.
Said Madeline: “It was a very big surprise, it was overwhelming at first. I couldn’t really register it for a couple of days.
“It’s really rewarding to win something considering I might not have had the highest skill level as others.”
Entrants submitted their interpretation and background story of an “earth guardian”, creating a character to defend the earth using nature and elements to inspire the design.
“Ykine” challenged views on traditional earth guardians, with the character representing the invasion of “perfectly polished” buildings and cities by bringing nature into places where they were not usually found.
Said Madeline: “Common representations are often very mystical and distant from humans and how they interact with them. They tend to have awe-inspiring powers and protect natural areas from humans.
“Ykine felt less majestic and intimidating, and more equivalent to a racoon digging through the trash. This earth guardian has no drive to harm humans, only to reclaim parts of urban areas.
“It’s an immature trouble-maker, picking indirect fights and silent wars with those that own the buildings and sites it tries to plant seeds in.”
Madeline, 15, of Bryndwr, believed this concept challenged human existence in general, rather than a focus on sustainability.
It was a reminder for humans to actively pursuit keeping nature alive instead pushing the issue away.
“It’s challenging human existence in general, how we have messed up the planet and how much things have gone wrong. Humans need to step back and try not to do anything else,” Madeline said.
“We don’t have earth guardians, so the issue is in our hands.”
The competition was in celebration of a new concept design course at Massey University and gave students a taste of what to expect in the professional world.
Madeline encouraged other young people to try something new, as they never know where it will take them.
“There’s absolutely no harm in entering competitions, it’s fun to try to challenge yourself to look at things differently.”
