PETA Global 2023 Issue 2

Art That Turns Heads, Heads,

Changes Minds Chan inds Praxis Meet

Spray can: © iStock.com/Aerial3 • Bullfighting artwork: © Praxis

People: © SeventyFour/Shutterstock.com • Background: © iStock.com/Shanina • Spray: © iStock.com/Shanina

G reat artists have used their talents to make compelling social statements. “I want to use mine to promote animal liberation,” says street artist Praxis, who has used his activist art to boost PETA’s “Free Lolita,” Iditarod, anti-vivisection, and exotic skins campaigns. PETA spoke with him about the intersection of art and activism.

happy life somewhere safe now. It also represents grassroots efforts to help animals escape death and torture and the alliance between us and our animal friends. It honors those anonymous people risking their freedom to gain the animals’ freedom and encourages direct action. Do you think art is an effective educational tool? Art can talk to everybody. I catch people’s eye through the image and then draw them into the message. By the time you figure out the image, stencil, illustration, or mural, it has opened your mind. I’m communicating with you from a point of view that looks friendly or appealing to the eye but represents the violence I want you to think about. Any advice for people who want to help animals but feel shy? Rodolfo Walsh, an Argentinian journalist, said walls are the people’s press. They can be the animals’ press as well. We put the messages where

Your art is visually vibrant, truly stunning. What sort of reactions have you had?

When Canada Goose sent people to buff black my posters in New York City, you could call that a recognition that they thought the art really did the job. Today, because of various forms of protest that I’m happy to say included that poster, Canada Goose has stopped using fur.

How did “protest art” take hold with you? Protest art can be found during the Russian

Revolution, with Picasso painting against fascism during the Spanish Civil War, and in Mexico with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. More recently, artists and artists’ collectives have advocated for human rights or against climate change, like Pussy Riot, Indecline, OBEY, Sue Coe, and Banksy. For me, it didn’t begin with art, but I always protested cruelty. Growing up in Bogotá, I became a vegetarian at 15, pretty much because of bullfighting. We kids used to meet outside the plaza de toros to yell at people entering the arena. I was protesting against violence to bulls but still eating animals that had to be killed for me to eat them. That opened the door. I realized I didn’t want to be part of harming them. They didn’t deserve to suffer. My art’s a continuation of that protest. What’s your favorite piece? There’s a mural in Brooklyn that I painted in support of an anarchist group I admire and support through my art in Europe. It represents the liberation of seven calves from a slaughterhouse who I hope are living a

everyone can see them. Stenciling in public places can have legal consequences, but to anyone interested in doing street art, I say don’t be afraid, plan well, and do it purposefully. It can bring awareness to your block or neighborhood – the scale doesn’t matter. What matters is to communicate what you want to say. That applies beyond art, of course. Do you have a favorite PETA campaign you’ve worked on? I feel equally for all animals, so I put my heart into each campaign. I despise animal testing, and the national primate research centers campaign gave me the chance to communicate to others the horrors that universities, labs, and NIH inflict upon millions of animals, from mice to monkeys. I love PETA Latino campaigns, too,

because I believe in the importance of reaching Latin American and Spanish-speaking communities and helping grow awareness by encouraging my Latine folks to defend animals. But if I must choose, it’s Canada Goose. Everyone involved did an amazing job, with people protesting every week outside their Manhattan store and PETA’s many ways to pressure the company. I love that we worked relentlessly, spending freezing winter nights walking the city, stenciling and putting posters up. Take Action Now Find your voice. Grab leaflets at PETA.org/Literature to help enlighten others. And visit PETA.org/Action to join PETA’s Action Team.

Art can talk to everybody. I catch people’s eye through the image and then draw them into the message.

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THE ART OF LIBERATION