Awareness Art
Environmental issues
Awareness Art is an initiative of the Grow and Flourish Foundation. They started this initiative to bring art to as many people as possible with the cultural enrichment that art has to offer. At the same time, Awareness Art aims to raise awareness among a broad audience about the relevant natural issues, such as climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss and pollution of the oceans.
We achieve this through four sculptures by artist Tim Boin, each addressing a specific problem. All four animals are threatened and represent one of the most pressing issues.
Polar bear - climate change
As a result of rising temperatures, the sea ice which they live on is melting rapidly. At this rate, within one generation, most of the North Pole will be ice-free in summer. Despite the fact that polar bears are good swimmers, they cannot survive without ice.
Year after year, the ominous heat records are broken. The fight against climate change is gaining momentum, but efforts to combat it still fall short. Under the current international climate plans, we are heading towards a global warming of 3.2 degrees Celsius. Such a rise in temperature has significant consequences for both people and nature.
Red Squirrel - deforestation
Due to deforestation, the squirrel is rapidly losing habitat, and it’s not the only animal facing this issue. Forests are of great importance to the health of the earth. Apart from being the habitat of a substantial part of our flora and fauna, trees store carbon dioxide, and they are a fundamental source of oxygen.
When trees are felled, or die otherwise, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. Thus, deforestation not only reduces oxygen production, but also increases carbon dioxide emissions. Forests are therefore of vital importance in the fight against global warming. They also play a crucial role in the preservation of biodiversity. Conservation of forests is therefore an objective that should not be underestimated for the preservation of our ecosystem.
Bee - biodiversity loss
Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all living species on earth. All animals, plants, fungi and bacteria are part of our biodiversity. A broad biodiversity ensures a healthy nature and a world in balance. The biodiversity on our planet is extremely broad, so broad that many species have not yet been discovered. But this extreme versatility is now at risk.
Bees play a major role in this delicate balance; they pollinate plants and thus ensure the survival of a large part of our flora. But bee populations are shrinking worldwide. This shrinkage poses a direct threat to biodiversity of plants and crops. Apples, coffee, almonds, tomatoes and cocoa, among others, are highly dependent on pollination by bees.
Whale - pollution of the oceans
In recent years, many washed up whales appeared in the media. Often, they had such large quantities of plastic in their stomachs that they could no longer digest their food. These kinds of incidents occur more and more often and are a serious indication of the extent of the problem with waste in the oceans. Whales aren’t the only creatures at risk. The massive pollution is a menace for the majority of life in the oceans.
They are not just threatened by plastic waste. Damage is also caused by sewerage, irresponsibly farmed fish, oil spillage, chemical pollution and waste in the form of pesticides and fertilizer after use in agriculture. While there are laws nowadays to protect the ocean, unfortunately, they do not alter the fact that the concentration of waste in the oceans increases every day.
Blue Monday
The third Monday of January has been declared as the most depressive day of the year. It’s cold, dark, wet and the new-year intentions have been given up. So, on January 20th 2020, we thought the Netherlands could use some fine art which comes to live through light! What makes our sculptures extra special is that they come to life in the dark hours of the day. This way the animals come to life; and their story comes out even better. In this way we turn Blue Monday into an artistic and conscious, but above all an ‘enlightened’ day.
About the artist
The art of up-and-coming artist Tim Boin. Tim is an up-and-coming artist in the Netherlands. He was the exhibiting artist in the famous W Hotel in Miami during the most prominent modern art fair in existence, Art Basel. Tim had previously created sculptures for an exhibition of Quays Culture, in front of the BBC in Manchester. All four animals are threatened and therefore have a story to tell, they all represent one of the most pressing environmental issues we are dealing with these days. Floris Koumans felt that these sculptures and the problems they represent deserved an even bigger stage. A stage in the Netherlands. This was the beginning of Awareness Art, an initiative of the Grow and Flourish Foundation.
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