“Portraiture has traditionally been a way of commemorating the figures we think of as significant or powerful.”(1)
Suzy Klein, BBC head of arts
Who then is is more appropriate to portray than those fighting for climate justice?
FacesOfRebellion is an art-activism project. I sit and chat with climate activists, while I sketch their portraits and scribble notes on our conversation. Later, I add their words around the portraits to make a powerful image that tells the story of their courage and humanity.
I was inspired by Suhita Shirodkar’s Faces Of Recovery project. I imagined telling the stories of climate activists through this medium of portraits and words combined. I thought of the name Faces Of Rebellion and immediately I was impatient to begin. I started sketching portraits from the Internet as preparation for a few weeks then invited Alex to be my first sitter.
Will there be a book?
People often ask me: Will there be an exhibition?, Will there be a book? I hope there will be both. For the time being, though, I’m concentrating on making portraits. If you want to exhibit them, or to publish a book, please get in touch.
Who makes Faces Of Rebellion?
For the time being, it’s me. But I want artists from around the world to join in. My dream is that soon you can search for “#FacesOfRebellon” and see portraits in gloriously varied styles, with stories in all languages, uniting climate activists all over the planet. If you’re an artist, get in touch.
I’m Mark. I’m sketchbook artist; you can see some of my sketchbooks over at bitterjug.com. I write software for a living and, for a few years now, I’ve been keeping a sketchbook: drawing my everyday life and the changing flora of the seasons, Urban Sketching, and making reportage sketches from climate protests. Since last year, I’ve also been making portraits of activists.
