Human Cost, Tate Britain Performance (87 minutes), charcoal and sunflower oil 20 May 2011 — First anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Artists from art activist group Liberate Tate staged a performance by pouring an oil like substance over a naked man at the Tate Britain museum on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
On the same day, 166 people who work in the arts published a letter in the Guardian calling on Tate to end its sponsorship relationship with BP. “In the year since its catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has massively ramped up its investment in controversial tar sands extraction in Canada, has been shown to have been a key backer of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and has attempted to commence drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. While BP continues to jeopardise ecosystems communities and the climate by the reckless pursuit of “frontier” oil, cultural institutions like Tate damage their reputation by continuing to be associated with such a destructive corporation.
The massive cuts to public arts funding in the UK have left hundreds of culturally important arts organisations in a position of great financial vulnerability, which means that the debate about the appropriateness of particular potential corporate sponsors like BP and Shell is more relevant than ever. As people working in the arts, we believe that corporate sponsorship does not exist in an ethical vacuum. In light of the negative social and ecological impacts of BP around the world, we urge Tate to demonstrate its commitment to a sustainable future by ending its sponsorship relationship with BP.”
Climate Rush activists protest Tate Britain over BP sponsorship
Climate Rush Tate Britain
Today (20 April 2011) Climate Rush activists demonstrated outside the Tate Britain, which is sponsored by BP, to mourn those that lost lives, as well as environmental damage resulting from the Deepwater Horizon disaster which began on this day last year.
New Orleans, LA. – Attendees of the “Gulf Coast Leadership Summit” received a pleasant surprise this morning upon hearing a representative from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announce a ban on toxic dispersants — as well as a new free health care plan for spill and cleanup victims. Even more surprising: a BP co-presenter expressed regret for his company’s past actions, and said the oil giant would foot the bill for the new health care plan.
But the news was too good to be true. Surprise turned to confusion when an irate BP representative entered the room and interrupted the press conference. Comedy ensued as the two reps pointed fingers at each other, each claiming to be the real BP employee. Members of the press, confused, attempted to discover who was real and who wasn’t.
The answer was: except for the audience, everyone was a fake. The impostors Dr. Dean Winkeldom and Steve Wistwil, both Gulf Coast residents, collaborated with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an organization whose goal is to create sustainable communities free from industrial pollution. The organization decided to create a hoax to publicize what should be happening in response to the emerging health crisis. It was a last resort, since straightforward approaches were not working.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade action was supported by the Yes Lab, a project of The Yes Men that helps activist groups carry out media-getting creative actions on their own. Four years ago in New Orleans, The Yes Men impersonated an official from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to announce, among other things, that HUD would re-open public housing and make oil companies pay up for wetlands destruction.
Protesters angry at BP’s failures over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill descend on Tate Modern on Sunday in protest at the gallery’s links with the beleaguered oil giant.
Next Wednesday will see the anniversary of the Gulf spill, and direct action groups London Rising Tide and Art Not Oil are planning a flashmob at Tate Modern to commemorate the disaster.
The group is using Facebook and Twitter to mobilise followers to attend the highly visual protest. Hundreds of people took part in a ‘BP-sponsored sleep-in’ among the art works and visitors of the gallery.
At 2:15PM exactly the participants spontaneously broke from the crowds to don BP branding and fall asleep on the gallery floor.
The protest was to remind Tate members and visitors that the gallery is sponsored by BP, and express a wider concern that sponsorship of the arts helps to distract public attention from the environmental damage the oil
company causes, including the Gulf spill.
The event was aimed at damaging BP’s brand, and comes as the company has mounted a major PR campaign in an effort to deflect criticism around the anniversary of the oil spill. At its annual general meeting, the
company faced an angry coalition of shareholders, campaigners and residents from the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian tar sands.
Tony Cottee of Rising Tide said: “Sponsorship of galleries such as Tate is one of the most important ways BP tries to buy the public’s acceptance and make people forget about disasters such as the Gulf of Mexico spill. We are here to make sure they don’t get away with it, and to warn Tate that their own reputation is at risk through their association with such a damaged and damaging company.”
He continued: “It’s clear that BP has learnt nothing over the last year. The time has now come for Tate to say, ‘enough is enough’, and break off their relationship with BP once and for all.”
The protest is part of a week of direct action against BP-sponsored cultural institutions, coordinated by groups including London Rising Tide, Art Not Oil, London Climate Camp, Climate Rush and Liberate Tate.
The only way we can have accountability is if shareholders hold the company in which they own shares to account. If they are locked out because they have an opposing view, there can be no accountability.
That the security thugs knew who these people were on entry and then had them carefully watched, suggests to me the group has been heavily infiltrated.
I recall several years ago attending a BAA AGM. I was literally talking to the media from dawn to dusk. We even managed to have a reasonable sized demonstration outside which we organised by word of mouth (and that was before the days of social media) and had politicians on the platform.
I even managed to speak at the AGM. The response I got from the Chairman was: Sir, you appear to be challenging the board. Actually I think the word phrase was threatening the board. Well yes, that was exactly what I was doing. I then had the microphone snatched out of my hand. I was not though ejected.
Surprisingly, after the AGM, I was able to have a very open and frank discussion with the chief executive.
“The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left. “This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs. And men who struck their enemies with thunder. “This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes — the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.” “This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes — the coming of the white men’s cattle.” “This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.” “This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.” “This is the Sixth sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.” “This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.” “This is the Eight Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom. “And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
“These are the Signs that great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands — with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.
“Many of my people, understanding the prophecies, shall be safe. Those who stay and live in the places of my people also shall be safe. Then there will be much to rebuild. And soon — very soon afterward — Pahana will return. He shall bring with him the dawn of the Fifth World. He shall plant the seeds of his wisdom in their hearts. Even now the seeds are being planted. These shall smooth the way to the Emergence into the Fifth World.
— Hopi
A couple of years ago I was given blue Hopi sweetcorn. Yes, blue! Unfortunately the seeds were not fertile. [see Seedy Sunday Brighton 2007]
‘Obama cannot order pelicans not to die (no matter whose ass he kicks). And no amount of money – not BP’s $20bn, not $100bn – can replace a culture that’s lost its roots.’ Photograph: Lee Celano/Reuters
‘[BP’s] primary purpose was to generate profit for our share holders … our primary purpose in life was not to save the world.’ — Tony Hayward, BP CEO
‘The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.’ — Tony Hayward, BP CEO
The Deep Water Horizon disaster is not just an industrial accident – it is a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself …
John Wathen, a conservationist with Waterkeeper Alliance, summed up the disaster when he flew over the Gulf in the first few days of the disaster: The Gulf seems to be bleeding. Environmental lawyer Monique Harden refuses to refer to the disaster as an ‘oil spill’, she says ‘we are hemorrhaging.
Tony Hayward wants his life back.
Whales are dying, fish are dying, the inshore fisheries are dying, the tourist industry is dying.
The coastal marshes are dying. These are the spawning ground for the Gulf marine life. If the marshes die, the Gulf Dies.
Tony Hayward would like his life back. As would the eleven workers who died on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010.
We are told BP will clean up.
Alaska still has not cleaned up from the Exxon Valdize disaster. Oil has soaked into the beaches. It may have said Exxon on the side of the ship, it was carrying BP oil.
BP is using as an oil dispersant Corexit, a neuro-toxin pesticide banned in the UK. It is safe BP assures the little folk of the Gulf. Safe! Safe as the Deepwater Horizon, safe as the BP oil plant in Texas!
BP has cut corners, it has ignored safety advice. Andarko Petroleum, a 25% partner of BP in the Deepwater Horizon, has accused BP of ‘recklessness’.
Tony Hayward is not fit to run a whelk stall. He comes across as an insensitive, incompetent fool. Appearing before a Senate Committee he was unwilling or unable to answer their questions. How he he be expected the know the answers when he is CEO of a company that drills hundreds of holes in the ground!
What of the Swedish Chairman? He was too busy with his girlfriend playing the life of a playboy in Thailand.
BP had no contingency plan in place in the event of an accident. Their response to date has been one of stick finger in the air and wonder if this will work.
BP has laid flimsy booms which are doing nothing to contain the surface oil. Oil is now heading into the Atlantic. It is moving at an estimated rate of one hundred miles a day.
BP has repeatedly lied about the amount of oil pouring from the well. It is not just oil, methane is also pouring out, a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO2.
BP has an appalling environmental and human rights record. From the leaking Trans-Alaskan pipeline to paramilitary death squads kicking farmers off their lands on a pipeline route through Colombia.
Under George W Bush, Big Oil was the White House. Barack Obama may now be kicking BP ass, but he did nothing to roll back Big Oil on entering the White House.
In the 1950s, a US-UK coup in Iran removed a legitimate democratic regime to install and a puppet regime and hand the country’s oil over to BP (British Persian), We are still counting the cost with a despotic Islamist regime running the country.
BP as a company is finished. It has trashed the environment and in turn it is being trashed. Its share price has gone into free fall, its credit rating is fast approaching junk bond status.
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