Making the Invisible Visible

By Jasmin Singer — November 08, 2010

Mariana Cerovecki is an artist living in Croatia who uses her various artistic skills to speak up for animals, creating stunning, vexing, thought-provoking work that has the power to leave you breathless and inspired. On her website, she states that she wants to “make the invisible things visible.” When Mariana is not creating paintings, drawings, photographs, poems, and so much more, she creates short educational videos and movies for Animal Friends Croatia, Croatia’s biggest animal rights organization.

“Monkey in a cage” by Mariana Cerovecki

Says Mariana, “Through my art, I want to show people the many ways that animals are exploited… and through art — through a picture or poem — I try to make things more visible, more direct.”

“Captivity” by Mariana Cerovecki

Mariana also participates in street art competitions, promoting veganism or putting “the subject of animal rights on a higher level.” She continues, “I like to be active all the time and in every situation, so for me, being able to participate in various art contests and promote animal rights in them is a great thing to do, because a lot of people can see the message!”

Masks for the demo against animal transport, organized by Animal Friends Croatia. By Mariana Cerovecki.

What I particularly love about the way Mariana uses her talent in art for the greater good is that, through her work with Animal Friends Croatia, she is truly taking the concept of “art as advocacy” to the next level. Art can open the eyes of those who otherwise refuse to see, and by combining art with animal rights demos, you become a force to be reckoned with.

“Stop Animal Transport” by Mariana Cerovecki

Mariana also uses art to speak up against corporate greed. The way she describes the piece below, entitled “Slavery has many faces,” Mariana states, “I’m not lovin’ the greedy corporate capitalistic exploi

tation of humans and non-humans, packed into tiny boxes with the sweat of child labor and blood from the graves of non-human animals, all masked into a morbid mascot of a fucking serial killer clown. Boycott McMurder’s.”

“Slavery has many faces” by Mariana Cerovecki

She uses any and every opportunity to advocate for animals. Here is a piece that she included in the exhibition, StereoStrip, whose goal, according to Mariana, was to “show various stereotypes and discriminations through comics.”

by Mariana Cerovecki

But why limit yourself to just three artistic mediums, when you can have yet another? Yup. She also makes jewelry.

by Mariana Cerovecki. Available for purchase at http://www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr/katalog/trakice_za_mobitel_i_privjesci/privjesci

You can learn more about this truly phenomenal artistic activist — including reading her animal rights poems and watching her videos — at her website, animalrightsart.webs.com.

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