Introduction
FIFA World Cup is one of the greatest events in the sporting world. It is a time of festivities for football fans around the world and for the country that is hosting it. This presents a fantastic opportunity to bring the arts to these festivities of football. How about bringing in a sustainability element to this mixture of art and FIFA and why?
Qatar, though a small country, thinks big! Not only has Qatar successfully hosted top world class games in the country but has also taken steps to showcase a sustainable FIFA world cup by building sustainable stadiums for instance. This project is a humble attempt to add to that goal.
These images of paintings are of endangered species that are from countries participating in FIFA. Each piece attempts to bring awareness to the animal species that are fast disappearing because of the ignorance of mankind.
Two prior art work of mine (size 101.2 x 76 cm), show marine life affected by climate change and plastic use. These pieces were exhibited in Katara in July 2019 under theme of ‘Colors of Desert’ as part of ‘Qatar Vision 2030’. I chose the Environmental Development pillar as my theme for this project and attempted to show the ill effects of pollutants like plastic on the life of underwater species. Here coral reefs are shown as disintegrating, dying and colorless. The focus in this painting is on turtle. As QE and Qatar University have taken up the project of protecting Hawksbill turtles, I wanted to highlight how Qatar is advancing in this area. The second painting in the marine life series shows how Qatar’s vision of 2030 will transform life beneath water with fishes and turtles flourishing and coral reefs coming back to life in all it’s beautiful colors.
The main focus of this project is on UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 14 (life below water) and Goal 15 (life on land).
To the question at the top about art, sustainability, and the FIFA World cup, it is the hope that as we all come together to enjoy this great game, we also set aside some time to reflect on ways to contribute towards saving our plants and animals that share this beautiful planet with us.
