Art With a Cause

Rachel Williams discusses artists who are using their art to help promote awareness of particular global issues. Let these incredible artists use their work to inspire you to take in the issues that are impacting many across the world today. 

Serge Belo

Serge Belo is a Montreal based interdisciplinary artist. In 2012 he created a beautiful mosaic highlighting the main problem of today’s society: Safe water. The mosaic represented a fetus in the maternal womb, emphasising the necessity of water for every living person, even before birth.

Belo filled 66,000 coffee cups with ‘dirty’ rainwater of varying shades to create this incredibly beautiful image. In just 62 hours and with the help of X volunteers the artist worked alongside the support of ONEDROP resulting in a mosaic spanning 334 sq m, using 15,000 litres of coloured rainwater. His piece highlighted a crisis of a monumental scale, which we need to begin to pay attention to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21798782

Arno Elias

PETA is reknown for their creative campaigns and cleverly use of the celebrity platform to communicate their controversial messages. However, a more recent discovery I’ve made is an art project by artist and photographer Arno Elias. He creates stunning images by collaborating with the likes of Cara Delevingne and Suki Waterhouse in order to overlay societies beauty icons into the context of the animal kingdom.  He connects the freedom and liberation of these women models to voice a cause for those who cannot speak for themselves. Saving and protecting the future of wildlife ‘I am not a trophy’ campaign puts pressure on trophy hunting sports, naming and shaming, as well as creatively delivering messages.

http://imnotatrophy.org/main/

Zaria Forman

When you first take a look at Zaria’s images your first thoughts may be manipulated photographs or even CGI. However, this highly climate-conscious artist creates unbelievably gorgeous pastel pieces with her hands. She does so in order to demonstrate not only the earth’s delicate materials but the rapid and very real process of global warming. Her work demonstrates a calming but concerning reality for the fragile nature of our planet. She uses her skill of hyperrealism in the most powerful way to communicate the issue; I envy her skill but hugely admire how she uses it.