Hannah Arnesen | Sweden
“Stardust” is a visual essay/picture book that portray the climate crisis by taking the reader on a journey through the Earth's past, present and future. It is a story about the process of the universe; where life becomes death and death becomes life.
The protagonist writes letters to the earth, to the reader and to her unborn child. The letters tell about the wonder of earth, and how she struggles with the shame and grief and looking for hope. “Stardust” is a story about humans and the planet, but also a story about me who grew up with a grandmother who is a Holocaust survivor and how I try to find hope in the fact that small things can change the history. The book is my way of finding stories of life in stories of death.
My ambition with “Stardust” is to take on large amounts of facts and turn it into a personal story. I want to portray the climate crisis and the transience of life. I have chosen topics that I think have been difficult to grasp, with the aim of transforming them into something that grasp the reader.
“Stardust” is written for young adults and adults, but the pictures make it accessible to all ages. With the script, I want to portray the climate crisis in a way that makes the reader have the strength to listen. The script is aimed at those who, like me, have a hard time taking in graphs and science fiction about the doom of the earth.
Stardust is written in Swedish but here I send a version where I have translated it to English. Parts of the book are finished pictures and parts are sketches. In the end the whole book will be painted in water colours, like the finished images.
Education:
Konstfack
Master in visual communication
Graduation: 2021
Published titles: 3