Global warming, unfortunately, is getting a bigger and more serious problem every day. We all notice the effects, and it’s getting more and more important to not only create awareness but also to fight for our planet.
Vegan Flava from Sweden is a visual activist and direct action painter. The quote on his website explains best what moves him to make the art he does:
“My work concerns how culture, norms and identity affects the environment, animals and ourselves. I took away the layers of identity and came down to the bones. In my work the skeleton and cranium becomes a symbol for the common, it’s a way to paint us all at ones. Just as a lifetime here is finite so is also our Earth. Life is precious and unique as a fingerprint, as a print of a paw or a clove. Let us choose our actions carefully every single day. What we do today, has an impact on a future we are going to have to face.”
Losing surface
His latest work is again a statement to awaken people from their ignorance. To wake them up and to show them we need to take action, now! Because as the ice of the north and south poles are melting, just as all glaciers, we are losing our planets ice surface. It causes the sea and lake levels to rise, so we are losing land surface as well. Whole island nations are drowning in the sea and people living near the coasts are in danger. Vegan Flava experiences this himself as he lives in Sweden were nature is changing dramatically: “I live in Sweden and if there’s not much snow or cold enough to freeze the lakes in the winter, it’ll mean a change both physically and mentally, but also in terms of identity. To destroy ecosystems that have evolved over thousands of years, to gain short term economic growth is one of our cultures most cynical activities. We are losing surface to the superficial.” And he is right.
Vegan Flava made this piece, called Losing Surface, with biodegrable chalk, snow, ash and charcoal on the ice of Harsasjön/ Lake Harsa in Järvsö, Sweden. Half human, half nature, melting away, something we need to heal and repair. Losing surface is a part of his ongoing project Signs on the Surface.
Vegan Flava takes his mission to awaken us on how we effect the environment seriously. I’m grateful he uses his voice and art to make people aware, to show them what we are all doing to our planet. In addition to his artwork, he calls us all to stand up.
“We are all in the climate crisis together and there’s nothing more important than stopping the global warming and the destruction of our home planet. Join the Global Climate Strike on Friday March 15th to put pressure on our/ your government to urgently stop the emissions so that the global warming will not exceed 1,5 C. Politicians will not do anything without a strong support or pressure from the people! They can’t, they’ll lose elections. So we need to make sure they don’t win anything if they don’t fight climate change!”
Art should not only be shown in the restricted area of the gallery, where you apply for permission. If you’re an artist, join Vegan Flava, join us, bring your art-ivism to the streets, to the climate strike! Art is a language, use it!
Visual activism!
Thank you, Vegan Flava for sharing you art, your voice and your statement. Together we can all take a small step which eventually will be one big step.
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