““The role of Art for Ecocide Law (AfEL) is to use creativity to educate, inspire and empower.””
Part of our Art Action Resources series.
This project is an urgent #CALLtoACTION and is inspired by the international focus around oceans and water as recently demonstrated at the UN Oceans Conference in Lisbon, and by the ground-breaking news from one of the conference’s co-hosts, Kenya, whose Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Forest formally announced, in plenary, the country’s proposal to criminalise ecocide.
We hope to truly inspire and bring into focus our oceans.
We propose this first global art initiative be easy to reproduce in any country by anyone, anywhere in the world. Reverse graffiti is a very effective way to use creativity to make powerful statements, leave inspiring messages and to do it without the need for formal permission and without harm to property (each artist in each region needs to do their own risk assessment, some regions will be more vulnerable to authorities than others).
The idea is to create big shoals of fish on pavements or walls in very public places all over the world! This is an ongoing project that builds and grows awareness - with examples hosted here as people all around the world catch on to it.
More and more fish will accumulate along with the use of the Stop Ecocide logo and rune alongside the words: #StopEcocide, #SaveOurOceans and #ACTNOW.
A quick video tutorial is also available here.
1. Cut
Cut out your stencil. You can use hardboard, plastic sheets or a flattened aluminium, just be careful when cutting with a scalpel or tin snips.
2. Clean
Place the stencil on your chosen surface and use a stiff/wire brush to clean away the initial dirt layer. Tougher stencil materials will work best.
3. Repeat
Repeat this process until you have a large shoal of fish.
We suggest you work in teams, if possible, and have several people working with multiple stencils at the same time. Share wire/stiff brushes and rotate regularly to make optimal use of everyone’s scrubbing arm; one can fatigue quickly!
Please also find a printable rune stencil, logos and QR codes that link to the international SEI website.
Please take photos of your installations: before, during and after your small/large shoals are completed.
Post these on your personal and/or organisation’s social media accounts and send all media to ashley@stopecocide.earth.
Tag us @ecocidelaw and use the hashtags #StopEcocide, #ART4EcocideLaw or #Artists4EcocideLaw.
Other suggested hashtags:
#globalgoals #OceanDecade #GenOcean #SaveOurOcean #RevitalizeTheOcean
#OceanClimateAction #OceanAction #OceanProtection #OceanConservation