|
NEWS June 22nd 2004
|
||
|
Review Guests at the National Portrait Awards this week could not enter the event without facing a simple question from campaigners: why are we still going to art galleries sponsored by oil companies? While disrupting the BP-funded festivities, they also set up an alternative exhibition to highlight the dangers of climate chaos caused by our oil economy. By John Hoggett London Rising Tide, a grassroots group taking direct action against the root causes of climate change, has joined forces with artists to express anger over the role of BP in intensifying fossil-fuel emmissions and human rights abuses around the world. During the past two years, as part of its campaign against BP’s hugely controversial Baku-eyhan pipeline, London Rising Tide has disrupted BP Annual General Meeting, brought Caspian carve-up conferences to a standstill and targeted BP-sponsored locations such as Tate Britain, Natural History Museum and the Royal Opera House. Now, it has set its sights on BP's sponsoring of the Portrait Awards. The week of actions was called “Greenwash Or Us: the first annual exhibition of resistance to big Oil and the corporate hijacking of the arts.” A street party was organised outside the National Portrait Gallery on Wednesday 16 June, to coincide with the Award’s private viewing. At the same time, a space in Camden Lock was squatted, and is hosting an art exhibition against big oil until June 26th. Martin Doyle, a participating artist, said: "as an artist I’m appalled by BP’s sponsorship of the arts, which gives the impression that the art world condones the company’s activities around the world". London Rising Tide activists point out that in previous years the NPA was sponsored by John Player, a tobacco company. Sarah Newby suggests: "it’s time to meet the increased corporate hijack of the arts with defiant creativity, time to kick the corporations out of our galleries, museums and theatres". The street party attracted some 150 people. There was a sound system, drummers and music. The public were leafleted, as were all the people invited to the BP sponsored private viewing. Some students who had been invited decided to boycott it and go to the alternative exhibition in Camden Lock instead. The events were some six months in the planning and originally London Rising Tide were looking for a central London location for their own exhibition. They had trouble in finding anywhere suitable and eventually settled for a deserted shop in lively, run-down Camden Town. 50 Chalk Farm road is a big empty furniture shop that occupies three floors plus a cellar. The top floor was used for sleeping and personal space, the cellar was used for storage and the remaining two floors were used for exhibiting art, workshops and talks. The activists found themselves with more wall space than many central London galleries. The art was a mix of political banners, photos of pollution from various parts of the world including Nigeria and Columbia, as well as old posters and pieces taken from the Rising Tide and London Rising Tide websites. Some cupboards left over from the furniture shop were used for installations. Idealized pictures of the Oil industry were put on the outside of the cupboards and pictures of Oil slicks, assassinations in Columbia and other Oil business horrors on the insides. People were asked to bring along there own art or encouraged to make some at the event. Many people did, and two pieces caught this reviewer's eye. They were simple portraits done in black ink on white paper, the ink smeared on with the artist's fingers. The results were two shadowy portraits that looked, in the context of the exhibition, to be smeared with crude Oil. Someone had already offered to buy these pieces. Unfortunately London Rising Tide had no record of the artist who had produced them and were wondering what to do with this offer. The event brought together artists, squatters and people who work and live in Camden. Thursday at the gallery saw the “Affected Communities” night, mixing ”theater of the oppressed” techniques with speakers from West Papua and the Columbia Solidarity Campaign. The speakers talked of how BP had destroyed communities by causing pollution and colluding with paramilitaries who threatened and killed people living in both these countries. The dramatist got the people attending to act out these stories using simple drama exercises. It was like watching political cartoons performed by people. The people from West Papua and Colombia seemed pleased with the process. People for whom English is not there first language were also appreciative. On Friday they had music from Dave Rovics, an American activist singer and on Sunday they were planning workshops from London Earth First and the Baku campaign as well as other groups. Finally, on Monday, protesters gathered outside the National Portrait Gallery as it prepared to unveil this year's winner of the BP sponsored National Portrait Awards. Four London Rising Tide activists chained themselves across the front door denying access to the exclusive event to the country's richest and most influential culture vultures, and forcing them to question their compliance to BP's actions around the world. The activists evaded security and locked on, using d-locks, chains and arm tubes, across the front entrance, just off Trafalgar Square. Other people handed out leaflets, held banners and informed the bemused guests that by crossing the picket into the exhibition they were signalling their compliance to the crimes BP has and continues to commit around the world. Those privately invited-few, including Chris Smith, the Minister for Culture, were forced to climb ungraciously under or over the human line. A number of red-faced suites unable to contain their anger, lashing out and grabbing one young man by the throat and pulling the line endangering those d-locked to the gates by their necks. Eventually people were re-directed to the side entrance and the gallery was forced to shut its front doors completely. Recommended links:
|