Bean: Kept in the dark

This is an illustration. There is a photograph of some leaves, and under one of the leaves, someone is sitting alone without access to sun or water. There is a leaf above this person where there is a group of people, who are in the sun, and who can access water.

Kept in the dark by Bean [digital artwork]

[This is about] being kept in the dark and not seen.

Photograph of lotus flowers and leaves

Lotus season at the botanic garden by Bean [photograph]

We [Ashley and I] would just go [to the botanic gardens] and like draw and stuff when we had nothing to do, but that was something, this is something good. ...Yeah, it's really nice there. So it's kind of like you go and chill out there and stuff. But [the lotuses] aren’t in season anymore, which is sad, but they probably will again, but yeah.

Researcher note: Bean used this photograph as the base for their digital artwork. In contrast to the digital artwork, this photograph is about ‘something good’ in Bean’s life. Some viewers may read into this, the complex and layered nature of young people’s experiences where a place or moment can hold both good and bad, oppression and resilience.

In some traditions including Buddhism, the lotus is often understood to represent resilience and purity, as it blooms rising from the mud.