Situated in London's Truman Brewery is Migrate Art's most recent project called "From the Ashes," a thought-provoking exhibition featuring 29 Indigenous and non-Indigenous-made artworks that were mainly painted using pigments, inks, and pastels extracted from "the burnt remnants of the Amazon."
According to the London-based social enterprise's public release, the show started last Feb. 21 until last Sunday, Feb. 25, and is a collaborative effort between Migrate Art and the art research center, People's Palace Projects.
All proceeds from the show will go towards funding the development of fire deterrent solutions on behalf of the Indigenous communities in the direct line of fire.
By March, the artworks will then go under the hammer in a Christie's London sale with singular estimates ranging from$2,530 (£2,000) at the low end and over $63,440 (£50,000) at the high end.
The Mounting Destruction of the Great Amazon Rainforest
Simon Butler, Migrate Art's Founder and "From the Ashes" participating artist, was quoted by the release saying: "We keep 20% of what we make, that's for overheads and rent. The rest of it goes to the Indigenous Xingu community, primarily for firefighting equipment."
"All these ideas of what to do with the money, they're not coming from us, they're coming from the community themselves," he continued. "When we were there, we had meetings with them and they talked about the fire brigade they wanted to develop, and they also talked about regrowing trees and reforesting."
Apart from the ever-enchanting and arcane aesthetics that the Amazon rainforest possesses, it is also a core element of the world's natural system that diminishes carbon emissions, which it does by trapping and storing these greenhouse gasses.
Now, the expansive greenery of the Amazon is threatened with eradication, with a study suggesting that the current downward state of the wildlife expanse could be irreversible by 2050.
Amazon-Aid, a non-profit with the mission to prevent this worst-case scenario from happening, said that the main root instigator of all the wildfires can be traced back to the deforestation that logging and other brash economic opportunities contribute.
How Art Can Pave the Way to the Amazon Rainforest's Restoration
Butler first visited the enchanting rainforest and its Indigenous Xingu communities two years back, which allowed him to survey the extent of the damages from the wildfires. In Butler's own words, the horrific scene looked akin to a "red desert that looked like the end of the world."
After seeing first-hand the possible desolate wake that could cover the expanse of the Amazon rainforest, Butler said that he was sure that change had to be made and that he had to try in the best way he knew: by utilizing art.
By using the art social enterprise's past projects as inspiration like "Scorched Earth," which mainly showcased art made using battlefield ash like the ones from Iraqi Kurdistan, Migrate Art's concept for the "From the Ashes" exhibition was born.
In preparation, Butler then collected the charred remains of the rainforest and brought them back to London to be processed into pigments, inks, and other art materials.
Artists who signed up for the forthcoming exhibition were then given the appropriate art materials to make their show-specific artworks.
One such artist was the British painter Piers Secunda, who depicted a smoke-covered scenery in the Amazon using the black ink that Butler provided.
Of the upcoming exhibition, Secunda said: "These art advocacy actions are grains of sand which build a pile. For now, the pile is small, but it is growing and will become substantial."
