-Ancient queen Boudicca in a modern land-
Above you can see a modern Boudica who is pulling off her sword to us. This is because I am from Italy, which was the home-country of the Romans.
For this project I used a manga-style to make my representation of her closer to the reality of younger generations. Thus, it is a hole page representing a particular moment in which Queen Boudica is seen as a fearless but elegant woman and warrior, who is fighting against us (the Romans).
Furthermore, I just used a lot of ink, a pencil, a rubber and I spent a lot of time doing it! For this reason I hope you enjoy my art piece.
-Azzurra Balducci-
Thanks to a recent initiative by the Liceo Giacomo Leopardi in Recanati, we students of 4F in the Language School have dedicated ourselves to the realization of a Civic Education project that has the aim of highlighting the figures of powerful women in history and myth in relation to SDG5 in the UN 2030 agenda.
Having studied the Celts, we decided to explore the figure of one of the most important women in history among the population of the Celtic Iceni who lived between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D.: Queen Boudica. While in the past her popularity grew, to our surprise, in recent years she has not received as much critical attention as she should have. As a matter of fact, she should be given the importance she deserves as one of the most powerful female symbols of British national pride.
In this project about gender issues, me (Azzurra Balducci) and my classmates Gaia Padalino and Megi Ago were particularly interested in exploring the aspect of motherhood in relation to Boudica.
After careful research on the figure of Boudica, we turned our attention to her two daughters, Heanua and Lannosea.
However, information about her as a mother is scarce, probably because of the tendency to obscure this aspect of life that was somewhat uncomfortable for the Roman colonizers of the Celtic Iceni society, as there was, among them, acute misogyny.
By joining our artistic talents we brought out the most relevant and interesting aspects in order to attract the attention of you all through three artistic works, a drawing and two sculptures. Lastly, you will find a podcast in which we imagined what it would be like to interview Queen Boudica herself.
Our idea was to create, first of all, some drawings regarding the artistic aspect, in which each of us has contributed with their creativity, so as to realize rather diverse yet all very fascinating projects.
Then, we created a podcast in which we asked Boudica herself direct questions ... or at least we imagined it was really her!
I wonder what she told us...
If you are curious and want to find out what she said to us, just click on the link below and you can immerse yourself in the era of the great warriors of the Iron Age.
-Guide to Victory-
In this sculpture I represented Queen Boudica on her horse, ready to go to war. Sitting down I depicted her two daughters looking at her mother.
To make this sculpture I used clay and I first modelled the figure of the horse and then that of Boudica, which I then glued with hot glue on a white canvas and then I painted it.
The next step was to take a support where I could insert tissue paper to recreate the effect of the grass, on which I placed the figures of the two daughters who observe the mother with amazement and admiration.
In this small sculptural representation, I wanted to highlight the greatness, strength and courage that characterized the figure of Boudica but at the same time my aim was to emphasize a more intimate aspect of the Queen's private life: the love for her daughters, with which, throughout history, she has succeeded in establishing a relationship of deep love, mutual trust, teaching them the most important values to pursue: audacity, respect and pride.
-Gaia Padalino-
-Pomegranate seeds-
The third piece, which I called "Pomegranates Seeds", explores another aspect of motherhood in relation to Queen Boudica. Pomegranates are not only a fruit, traditionally they are considered as a symbol of fertility too, so that’s why I was attracted to them. The reason why my piece is divided in two is to represent Boudica’s two daughters in a more abstract way; the flower in the middle has a deep meaning too. In appearance it does look like a flower but in reality it is the representation of the the female reproductive organ, and it is red to embody the abuse that Boudica (on the sides) and her daughters unjustly experienced at the hands of the Romans. The flowers are simply to give it a taste of nature and mark their cultural roots with Boudica's even more since Boudica and the Celtic Iceni worshipped several nautural elements.
-Megi Ago-
And now you can listen to our podcast! Click here and listen to this wonderful story.
-Since in this podcast our "Queen Boudica" used some ancient words, here you can check for the meaning of these words.-