artists and charity carve giant SOS out of palm oil plantation

the distress cry gives a voice to the wildlife and vegetation of the sumatran rainforests. ernest zacharevic looked out his plane window, at the ongoing destruction of indonesia’s forests, at the demise of iconic species like the sumatran orangutan, at the palm oil plantation. in his head, he saw parts of the landscape flatten to form an aerial message — SOS.

image by ernest zacharevic

there are only 14,600 orangutans remaining in the wild in sumatra. at the end of 2017, cosmetics company lush partnered with conservation charity, sumatran orangutan society (SOS). together, they launched the #SOSsumatra campaign movement across europe. lush made 14,600 soaps, which flew off the shelves in france, germany, italy, spain, netherlands, sweden, austria, ireland, belgium, norway, czech republic, finland, luxembourg, portugal, estonia, switzerland and the UK, selling out in a matter of days, raising £126,014. the proceeds enabled the orangutan information center to buy 5,000 acres of oil palm plantation land. they reclaimed and restored native forest to an area on the edge of the leuser ecosystem, in bukit mas, sumatra.

image by ernest zacharevic

‘this part of the forest was under attack,’ said helen buckland, director of the sumatran orangutan society, ‘with more and more orangutan habitat being lost every week as illegal agriculture encroached into the protected area. by supporting us to buy this land on the buffer zone of the national park, lush and their customers are enabling us to hold back, and reverse, the tide of forest loss.’

image by skaiste kazragyte

in 2017, zacharevic curated a series of projects in sumatra as part of splash and burn — an art initiative run with SOS. SOS raised awareness in regards to issues affecting the community, including consumerism, climate change and the ever fleeting wildlife population. for their latest dialogue opener, splash and burn challenged the idea of ‘art’ as an abstract gesture, turned acres into a canvas for change, and physically altered the sumatran landscape to reflect what it would be saying, if it could communicate back to us: save our souls.

image by tan wei ming