A Dutch artist is in London to contact Sir David Attenborough – and complete a piece of artwork inspired by his nature documentaries.
Dennie Boxem, from Zwolle in the Netherlands, has travelled to the UK with his painting David Attenborough – Lets Rewild the World, which depicts Sir David to an industrial background, overlayed with thousands of green dots.
Each dot has been put on by a different person to symbolize the broadcaster’s idea of ‘rewilding’ and Boxem is getting in touch with Sir David, who turns 100 this year, to ask him to add the final green dot to complete it.
Boxem said: “I watched the documentary A Life On Our Planet from Sir David, and it was a major inspiration and a wake-up call for me to see that our planet is not really going that well.
“He [David Attenborough] has great solutions for our climate crisis, but they were all political and corporate decisions, and this can make us feel very powerless.
“I wanted to inspire individuals to play their role as well, and show them that they can contribute themselves to this effort to help our planet.
“So I painted Sir David Attenborough in an industrial landscape, and I asked every visitor to my gallery in the city centre in Zwolle to add one single dot, and then write their name on the back.
“The industrial landscape we used for the background, you can’t see it anymore, its green – and that’s the point. Every little action does matter, ánd shows how together we can get this done.”
The painting, which Boxem began in 2020, sits in his gallery alongside a similar piece of the climate activist Greta Thunburg, which also set to an industrial background overlayed with thousands of green dots.
Boxem said: “The idea is to show both the oldest generation and the youngest generation together fighting for a better climate – that this activism isn’t a generational thing, its all of us in this together.”
Boxem is filming a documentary about his journey to London to find the subject of his piece with the prize-winning Iranian documentarian Mostafa Heravi and Dutch documentarian Bert Nijman.
They aim to release the film, Sir David, Dots & Dennie, on 8 May to coincide with the broadcaster’s 100th birthday.
Boxem has also committed to donating 90% of the proceeds of the piece to a charity of Sir David’s choosing.
You can see more of Dennie Boxem’s artwork on his website https://dennieboxem.com/.
All images: Bert Nijman
