Activists around the world are increasingly taking aim — with oil, soup, syrup and slime — at iconic works of art to protest climate inaction.
Last week Frederick McCubbin’s painting “Down on his luck” joined the growing list of masterpieces subject to a spot of mixed media when it was spray-painted with the logo of oil and gas giant Woodside. The action was designed to draw attention to Woodside’s “ongoing desecration” of sacred Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula, but ceramic artist and protester Joana Partyka said it wasn’t without collateral damage and criticism.
“When I was deciding to do this, I really oscillated between ‘Let’s get this done, let’s do this’ and ‘There’s absolutely no way I can do this, it’s too risky’,” Partyka told Crikey.
“I tend to be a bit of a ruminator and catastrophiser, so I created a full pros and cons list.”
Partyka was under no illusions about the personal ramifications the action entailed — custody, court, fines, potential employment consequences and public scrutiny. But she decided to proceed.
“Not everyone shares my views and beliefs, and to some my action is akin to going and graffitiing someone’s house or a train or doing something for the sake of destruction itself,” Partyka said.
“But what I think is unfair is that people like me are put in a place of having to take this action to begin with because our decision-makers have failed. I wouldn’t have done this if the government had upheld its end of the bargain.”
She was arrested on-site at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and charged with “criminal damage or destruction of property”. As well as tagging the piece in bright yellow, Partyka glued her hands to the gallery’s walls while Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton rolled out an Aboriginal flag, made an Acknowledgement of Country, and detailed the destruction of historical and cultural First Nations heritage at the hands of Woodside.
Partyka did not dispute the charges but told Crikey she rejected the characterisation of the action as defacing art. The 1889 painting was protected by perspex and came out unscathed.
“The power in the action is in the illusion of damage to the McCubbin painting. This is about protecting art and protecting our planet. Murujuga doesn’t have a protective layer of glass. We have to be the ones who act as that protective layer,” she said.
On top of legal liability, Partyka is also fronting the court of public opinion. Her inbox has been a mix of empathy and abuse with messages to the tune of “You’re a fuckwit”, “You’re an idiot”, “You’re a coward”, and “Your actions have effectively made me not care at all about First Nations issues”.
She called the feedback “fairly tame” and said it indicated the protest had been effective.
Publicly, descendants of McCubbin endorsed the action, as did a collection of climate activist organisations.
In a statement to Crikey, Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner Richard George said the organisation “does not condone destroying or damaging cultural heritage of any kind”, be that in a gallery or on sacred land, and it expressed relief that the McCubbin piece was unharmed. But it empathised with the motivations of the protesters, saying their action “speaks to the frustration many feel about coal and gas corporations like Woodside being given a free pass to vandalise our most precious resources”.
Australian Religious Response to Climate Change took a similar line, reiterating that although it doesn’t support protest that damages property, the painting was not damaged.
Extinction Rebellion did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month Extinction Rebellion UK announced it would move away from disruptive tactics to focus its energy on power politics.
Partyka is currently on surety bail, prohibited from setting foot in certain public spaces — namely galleries and libraries. Although she has not ruled out participating in another action like this, she said she has no plans to do so anytime soon.
“I do worry that the magistrate will come down hard on me as an example and I’ll end up in prison. But if I’m involved in anything like this on bail conditions, it’s a given I’ll be taken into custody and won’t be released,” she said.
Correction: a previous version of this story stated that Extinction Rebellion overall had announced a move away from disruptive protest tactics when the shift had been announced only by Extinction Rebellion UK. The piece has been updated to reflect this.
Are protests such as these effective? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
There’s a genuine problem with these stunts – mostly the public already want climate action. Super gluing yourself to a window, a painting, a road whatever doesn’t really advance the cause.
It’s politicians “balancing” the economy vs action that need their mind changed. Additionally countries are still jockeying for advantage from climate action/inaction.
And most of all governments the world over still want “growth” – ANY growth green, blue, grey or coal black is a negative for climate change.
Us mug punters can do “everything” within our power but that will only reduce emissions by a maximum of 20% – we need the other 80% addressed by government and trans national cooperation. AND we need zero growth for likely a century while the current population bulge to (apparently) 11b lives there lives with only Japanese level replacement.
Who am I kidding – nothing will be done – like yeast we will eventually die in our own effluent and the planet will repair itself over the next few millenia
Sure we’ll do something – just before it’s too late, we’ll totally change our spots and learn to organise ourselves properly, lol.
News flash, it was too late twenty years ago
But who will look after the McCubbins of the world when we are all gone?
Spot on, alas.
The recent collapse of the RedCycle soft plastic collection was inevitable and a perfect example of the willingness of the public to change their behaviour even though it is in vain if there is no market for recycled plastic because new product is too cheap and results in even more intractable combinations of unlike materials – eg a milk carton is paper, foil & plastic melded forever.
So long as government, manufacturing & retailing retains the old mindset that all kinds of everything bigger is better and profitable – fast fashion & junk food anyone? – we are on an express to Crapocalypse.
Hi Nick. Yes, the majority want climate action. But the great majority have no idea how bad things are, and how urgently and radically we need to act.
How many people know that the 1.4 billion tonnes of CO2 that will be released when the gas from Woodside’s Scarborough project will escape accounting within Labor’s “43% emissions reduction” – coz the gas will be burnt overseas? How many people know that gas is as bad as coal, and is definitely NOT a transition fuel?
Woodside literally owns WA. This sort of publicity is essential.
“when the gas is burnt”
Lots of places are congratulating themselves on big steps in net emissions – of course all their emissions are produced via China, India and third world agriculture.
The exact details of a mine or well won’t ever be tracked by the vast majority unless it’s out of scale to all other wells / mines – preferably with a nice round number like 100x.
If you mean “this sort of publicity” as some stunt with a painting – I’ve heard nothing specific linked to any of these stunts other than the generalised “just stop oil”.
I don’t know the answer – but soup and super glue ain’t it.
A further problem is, what is she actually protesting about? Destruction of Burrup rock art by Woodside? Woodside’s business plans? The fact that Woodside exists? The WA govt? The Federal govt? Just everyone and everything in general? Who knows
“the destruction of historical and cultural First Nations heritage at the hands of Woodside” seems plain enough to me. Did she need to right an essay on what she hoped to achieve?
Really puzzled by some of the reactions this sort of tame stunt inspires.
How can the potential of self-parody as dutiful bootlickers escape notice, when the damaged item is A SHEET OF PERSPEX.
I guess disingenuous outrage is a reflex, trained by the likes of Alan Jones…
Thanks, Turdoch
Love it …”turdoch”….an appropriate addition to my growing catalogue of insults for him, Dutton…and the endless list of oligarch and LNP dysfunctions!.
Makes me think of Violet Coco being arrested and jailed for stopping traffic on the Harbour Bridge for 25 minutes, but then they were fine closing the bridge the other day for seven hours to film a scene for a Hollywood movie. Because money, I guess.
Thank you for pointing out that it is the perspex cover that has been spray painted, not the artwork itself – which is the opposite of what Big Mining is doing at Murujuga and elsewhere. A detail too far for the Murdoch/Costello/Stokes media to notice.
(I’m sorry I made this comment two days ago but I can’t find it…mmm weird). I am a direct descendent of the McCubbin family, a Great Grandson and run a climate change organisation in the Latrobe Valley.
This sort of “look at me” stunt is disrespectful and does nothing to change the hearts and minds – this requires hard work, gathering trust, honest conversations and practical action. Being a climate activist doesn’t give you the moral right to act unethically.
I do not support this and I am sure Frederick McCubbin (the Professor), who died in 1917 (so none of us really know his feelings), never painted over a Tom Roberts to make a point.
Just stupid.
As much as it may suit some to make any random descendant a moral arbiter on this, I bet to differ.
Characterising this act as unethical is pretty damn oblivious to the fact that different people have different values structures, you know.
Screw your grandad’s bit of perspex. What anyone did a century ago to make a point is entirely irrelevant, because climate change.
‘Unethically’ – pshaw.
Why don’t you ride away on that high horse.
It’s not for any single person to say any tactic is off limits when nobody’s getting hurt. Surely we should be throwing everything we have at the wall to see what sticks, and avoiding circular firing squads.
Good on everyone who has a go. If you think they’re misguided, at least they’re less misguided than everyone who does nothing.
You know what’s actually disrespectful to the legacy of those gone before? Standing by and letting a pack of greedy crooks burn everything to the ground for the sake of some temporary baubles.