Last week, we were hit by this dramatic news: in 40 years, 60% of animal species disappeared because of humans and the way they treat (and threat) Nature. We thus wanted to bring some hope to this cruel world introducing Sonny, an amazing British street-artist based in South-Africa who puts his huge talent at the service of a good cause.
“23, 250 species are currently threatened with extinction, 2 years before the Mexican wolves becomes extinct, 4000 tigers currently existing in the wild, 95% of the world’s rhinos have been lost in the last 40 years”.
You can read this sad-but-true information on his website. Sonny originated the project “To the bone”, which aims to sensitize people to the animal cause by highlighting the hard reality of the disappearance of more and more species. Sonny did some murals all around the world such as in the United States, Canada, Ireland or the United Kingdom. He is popular all around the world and this is justified: his murals and creations are astonishing. He also makes some sculptures representing animal skulls to bring to light the fact that they are threatened by extinction.
The murals of the project “To the bone” represent wild animals whose face is detaching to make us see their bones. This is a symbol of the growing disappearance of those species and how fragile they are when confronted to human cruelty and selfishness. He chooses to decorate the bones with tribal and natural symbols that remind us which part of the world these animals come from and to show that losing them, we also lose a part of our inheritance and culture. Also, he sometimes covers some parts of their body with gold paint, which highlights what is most prized by the poachers that are in a huge part responsible of this dramatic phenomenon of animal extinction.
Beyond the impressive beauty of his murals, this artist successfully reaches our minds and hearts to give us a strong and important message. To do so, he travels a lot and tries to leave his mark in the more cities as possible. He has a website in which you can follow his travels and the evolution of his work. He also sells some posters and part of the benefits goes to the animal cause.
Go check his website by clicking on the picture below, follow him on instagram: @sonnysundancer, and of course don’t hesitate to spread his work 😉
