Olivia Mandle’s “Activist Art”.
It’s been two years since we introduced you to the first print of the series created by Olivia Mandlea former student of our art classes but above all known for her environmental activism work, and for her fight for animal rights, specifically requesting the BANNING OF DOLPHINS and CEtaceans in captivity and with it the programmed end of dolphinariums, zoos and aquariums where these animals are currently imprisoned.
Your campaign on Change.org #noespaisparadelfines is about to get 150,000 signatures.
In March last year he presented his contribution to the public hearing on the Draft Animal Welfare Bill asking to include his petition and therefore the prohibition of shows and cetaceans in captivity within this law.
In addition to his studies (he is already in the 4th year of ESO) and dedicating all the time he can to activism, he has not stopped drawing and painting, and has given us the last two prints of his series of “activist art” : “FLORA” y “HOPE”which are added to those we have already released, “EARTH”, “SEA” and “FAUNA”.
All of them have in common the black color of the letters, associated to the “dark” moment our planet is going through.
The proceeds from the sale of each of these prints will go to support the Change.org campaign for the closure of the dolphinariums, but also to new projects in which Olivia is involved.
The profits from the sale of these prints, which are already available in our shop, will be used to support his campaign for the abolition of dolphinariums in Spain.
“This work is an ode to life and the need to change our relationship with living things and the planet.”
To explain when the idea for this series was born, why, and what he wants to convey with each of the 5 illustrations is very intimately explained in the following writing that he sent us at the end of it.
These are very intimate words and thoughts, but they can make us reflect on how badly we have treated the planet.
“During the COVID’19 Pandemic I felt the freedom to create, to learn and to do many things with peace of mind.
One of the aspects that I remember most strongly were not the misfortunes that happened, of which I am very aware, but I found a positive aspect of everything that was happening and that was having a lot of time.
And it gave me an enormous feeling of freedom.
One of the activities I initiated was the creation of a series of activist and supportive posters to draw attention to our wonderful planet and the incredible biodiversity that gives us life.
This series of activist and solidarity art is about LIFE, THANKSGIVING and FREEDOM.
Many LIVES were in danger during that time, nature had shown us its strength and weakness at the same time, and we humans showed one of the most terrible faces: our capacity for self-destruction.
But my plates rely on that reality as a cry to the world to wake up and appreciate what we were losing.
THANKSGIVING was something I felt very intensely and I thought of those who were acting so that the human could survive, I saw my parents leave their jobs and create a chain of volunteers who cooked every day to get menus to all the hospitals, but I also saw that the animals while they revived and went out to the streets also died imprisoned in the captivity created for human leisure and business.
Those animals caused me helplessness as I watched them in the distance, mostly from my imagination, how they could not leave their prisons and reunite with their families, they could not go back and lock themselves up at home.
Their freedom was stolen more than ever.
And I felt I should thank with the proceeds those NGO’s who were doing something for the animals day after day.
The stolen FREEDOM that we all suffered now had one thing in common: in both cases it was created by humans.
So this series shows the beauty through the colors of the earth, flora and fauna.
But it shows the strength of nature through the letters in black, to resurface.
Nature does not need us for anything, while the human certainly needs nature.
