In the next five decades, humanity confronts a catastrophic loss of life like none ever witnessed before. In honor of Día de los Muertos and the artistic vision of world-renowned artist Patricio Robles Gil, WILD brings to social media Robles Gil’s Extinction Rituals. This is the most recent initiative in WILDs commitment to explore cultural avenues to help us understand the conservation dilemma.
Here is Patricio’s artist statement: “This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to engage in both communal grief and collective positive action. Dia de los Muertos is about respecting and honoring life that has passed. Our role now is to acknowledge what might be lost and to share with others new rituals that help defy extinction and transform loss into new forms of commitment to protecting life.”
Join us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter between October 29 and November 4 to engage digital altars constructed from the artistic vision of Patricio Robles Gil.
Each day WILD will post a new way for you to engage and give an “offering” to one of the five Día de los Muertos Extinction altars. At the conclusion of the festival Patricio Robles Gil will select three winners (based both on the quality and quantity of posts throughout the week) to receive one of his his wonderful photographic books, personally inscribed.
Patricio continues his statement: “Lowliness, sorrow, sadness, grief, will embrace humankind for the loss of the earth’s biodiversity. We are at the threshold of the six-mass extinction, and this one, we humans are solely responsible for.”
The artist asks us…
“How are we going to cope with that tragedy?”
Please use this opportunity to ask your friends and family to engage with these digital altars to help stimulate dialogue about and awareness of the root causes of extinction and what actions we can all take to help stop it.
TZOMPANTLI
In ancient Mesoamerica, Aztec priest decapitated their captive enemy and hang their heads in a stacked wall to provoke fear among them, this was and offering to their Gods, the wall´s name was Tzompantli. Today it looks like we are at war with nature, we are destroying habitats and species at an unprecedent rate, one of such species is the vaquita porpoise less than 10 are left in the world, The Tzompantli Vaquita Porpoise holds 30 clay skulls of this small marine mammal, and was exhibit at the San Carlos Nacional Museum in Mexico City, 3 years ago when 30 vaquitas still survive. In this story its looks’ that the vaquita is our enemy? Please tells us your opinion on how humans are destroying nature.
AQUILA RIDDLE
Many emblematic symbols of the animal world, are still being used as varmint, even though that is against the law, large wild cats, bears, hawks and eagles, that we cherries as emblems of many different countries, we used them as logos of corporations and in marketing campaigns to sell products and services. This photograph of a large bird of prey, a golden eagle, is in the shields of arms of many countries, and has been produced and targeted with real bullet holes. Tell us your opinion of this controversial human behavior.
CURSING THE POACHERS
The false belief that rhino horn has certain health powers, in the traditional Chinese medicine, it’s devastating the wild populations of the rhino seven species. This international illegal traffic starts with the local poacher. The sculpture “Cursing the Poachers” is a bronze skull of a southern white rhino and has over 70 curses of different artist, writers, philanthropies and conservationist, inside of each empty shell of high-power rifle stick to it. We invite you to write and send us your personal curse, through this site.
MILAGRITOS
Small miracles are used in the Catholic religion, to thank deities when a given miracle was delivered to a prayer in question, little arms, legs, hearts of metal that are given to altars in churches and sanctuaries when this happens. Over sixty little aluminum wild animals are represented in this artwork, some of the most endangered wild mammals, birds and reptiles of the world are nailed to this wooden representation of a lion, to ask the gods of nature to protect these species from extinction. Try to identify all the different species, and send us their scientific names, remember some are already extinct, others are critically endangered and many are endangered. Go and look at the IUCN red list to check their status?
IS GOLD REALLY VALUABLE
We use cyanide to separate tiny pieces of gold from the rocks, in the mining industry leaving behind huge mountains of waste material full of this highly toxic quimic in the environment, this cyonid could get into the aquifers and cause serious disease to the people of towns and cities around. This artwork is a photograph printed in a surface of gold leaf, of a painted human skull over a real human face, representing in one side death, and on the other side the possible 12,000 human skulls “deaths” by the amount of cyanide used on the production of two small gold coins. Please tell us what you think about the real value of gold.
Patricio Robles Gil
“Lowliness, sorrow, sadness, grief, will embrace human kind for the loss of the earth’s biodiversity. We are at the threshold of the sixth mass extinction, and this one, we humans are solely responsible for.
How are we going to cope with that tragedy?
The work, The Extinction Rituals, was conceived from frustration, to deal with this environmental holocaust. Rituals are created to cope with issues that we are not prepared to confront, they help us go through uncertainties in our lives.”