Three young artists from KZN, including two 10 year-olds, jetted off to London last month where their works were on show at an international exhibition at the Tate Modern Gallery.

First prize winners, Jani Spratt and cousins Anja du Plessis and Carna van Wyk had their work exhibited at the prestigious gallery in London together with other first prize winners of the Unilever International Arts Project, courtesy of the Unilever Foundation.

The theme of the international arts competition, currently in its second year locally, was Future Worlds and attracted hundreds of entries locally and internationally.

One of the joint first prize entries Orphanages, Orbits and Us is a mixed media collage submitted by Anja du Plessis of Newcastle and Carna van Wyk of Free State. The cousins worked together on the project during their July school holidays. They cleverly used the inside of a box to depict a future world as they would not like it to be, including an orphanage filled with sad faces of children whose parents had died of AIDS.

A futuristic table and chair set fashioned out of wire, marble and mirrors by Ferrum High School matriculant Jani Spratt of Newcastle also won the judges’ nod of approval for her innovative interpretation of the theme.

Amanzimtoti’s Sandile Madlala’s work Dominance, created as an “externalisation of his heartfelt pain and concern for Mother Africa”, won him second place and R5,000. Jason Hagemeijer of Ballito on the North Coast won R3,000 and was placed third for his introspective art work Future World while Annehette van Wyk received a merit prize of R1,000.