News & Reports

Egyptian Sculptor’s Statues of Endangered Animals Deliver a Message at COP27

The Egyptian artist Walid El-Sherbiny is showing sculptures of four endangered animal species, made from recycled materials, on the sidelines of COP27, the United Nations climate-change conference underway in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

El-Sherbiny’s statues—of a panda, a rhinoceros, an anteater, and a pair of sea turtles—are on display in a garden that’s part of the conference’s Green Zone, an area where artists, musicians, cultural groups, youth and civil society organisations, and others can register to hold events. The conference’s official negotiations and other events are taking place in an adjacent area called the Blue Zone.

Visitors to the Green Zone can stop next to the giant statues to take pictures while reading descriptions in Arabic and English that explain the dangers harmful human practices pose to each animal.

“I wanted to convey an idea through these statues, about how human behaviour can lead to these animals’ extinction. This behaviour includes the simplest things we may not consider,” like throwing plastic bottles into seas and rivers.

Walid El-Sherbiny, an Egyptian sculptor and visual artist

El-Sherbiny told Al-Fanar Media that he wants to spread a message about the dangers animals face from plastic pollution, overfishing, and other harmful practices, and how we can protect threatened species.

[Pyramid of Plastic Waste Warns of Pollution Threat to the Nile and the Sea]

“I wanted to convey an idea through these statues, about how human behaviour can lead to these animals’ extinction. This behaviour includes the simplest things we may not consider,” like throwing plastic bottles into seas and rivers.

Many people are unaware of the dangerous impact of marine plastic pollution, and how it can kill fish and other animals to the point of putting species, including some turtles of the Red Sea, in danger of extinction.

El-Sherbiny’s sculpture of sea turtles depicts a fishing net to illustrate one of the dangers they face. Nets that fishing boats leave behind or inadvertently drop are “a constant killer that harm all the fish and marine creatures who get in their way,” he said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has put some species of sea turtles, rhinoceros, anteaters and pandas on its Red List of Threatened Species.

Recycling Waste Materials

El-Sherbiny said he used recycled materials for his statues to draw attention to another issue, which is the possibility of using waste materials in different ways instead of throwing them away and contributing to pollution.

In the environment, plastic waste slowly breaks down into smaller fragments known as microplastics, threatening marine life and ultimately reaching humans through the food chain, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned.

To make his endangered species statues, El-Sherbiny bought scrap materials from merchants who collect such waste. He used 400 kilograms of scrap metal, 150 kilograms of cardboard, 150 kilograms of empty plastic bottles and 150 kilograms of oil canisters, selecting materials that could fit the shape of each animal. For the rhinoceros, he used old iron and sheet metal; for the panda, he used oil containers and plastic bottles.

El-Sherbiny’s sculpture of sea turtles depicts a fishing net to illustrate one of the dangers they face. Discarded fishing nets are “a constant killer that harm all the fish and marine creatures who get in their way,” he said.

It took two weeks to make the statues in Cairo before they were taken to Sharm El-Sheikh for the COP27 climate summit, El-Sherbiny said. The statues will remain on display in the Green Zone throughout the summit, which ends on 18 November. Afterwards they can be seen in different parts of Sharm El-Sheikh.

[Students Exhibit Art Made of Waste at Youth Conference Ahead of COP27]

El-Sherbiny is a graduate of Cairo University’s Faculty of Archaeology and has been making sculptures since he was a child. For about ten years he has been using waste from the demolition of old houses, including doors, windows, mirrors and ironwork, that he could refashion into chairs, tables, light fixtures, and other decorative works.

El-Sherbiny believes that art can play a role in the struggle against climate change because of its ability to communicate messages in a simple, effective way.  Art can show people how they as individuals can reduce pollution through simple things like separating waste to help in recycling, and taking immediate action to prevent practices that harm animals and the environment.

Read more about COP27 and climate change concerns in Climate and Environment, an archive of Al-Fanar Media’s reporting on these topics.

ScholarshipsFacebookNewsletters

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button