The trend of bringing attention to environmental causes by covering famous paintings with soup or other edible liquids of choice has made it’s way to Vancouver.
A pair of climate activists put a Canadian spin on the trend first started in the UK by pouring maple syrup on an Emily Carr painting “Stumps and the Sky” at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday.
A post of the two activists with their hands glued to the wall under the painting was shared to a twitter account called “Stop Fracking Around.”
BREAKING: MAPLE SYRUP THROWN ON EMILY CARR PAINTING BY ACTIVISTS
💀 Why are we protecting these paintings when we are not respecting indigenous law nor protecting the millions of lives that will be lost due to climate and societal collapse? pic.twitter.com/qDB0W9AuE3
— Stop Fracking Around (@StopFrackingA) November 12, 2022
The goal of this stunt was to stop the construction of the coastal gaslink pipeline which is going through traditional wet’suwet’en lands.
To those art enthusiasts worried about any damage done to the painting, it was being kept behind protective glass and no real damage was done, other than the sticky residue left behind on the glass. Perhaps a nice snack for other visitors?
This trend doesn’t seem to have any end in sight, but why have climate activists chosen artwork as a target for their demonstrations?
What does a beautiful painting by Emily Carr have to do with stopping pipelines from being built?
One explanation is that it doesn’t – it’s just a way to get peoples attention by doing something outrageous. And I will admit, it does work. We hear of and see climate protests all the time, but even with thousands of people attending these types of events, nothing seems to change.
It’s just not impactful enough.
A tweet by @Elis969962 on twitter states that disruption is “the best way to cause change in society. If they hadn’t done this you wouldn’t even have heard their message.”
Another way to look at it is to see the hypocrisy of our ways – how we protect cultural artifacts like art but refuse to see the environment as an important cultural artifact to protect and preserve.
Because the land is part of our culture. It has determined how we live, what resourced are available to us, how we get around, and so much more.
It is not just something to be bought and sold, to be built upon, to be destroyed.
It should be given the same respect as a Van Gogh or an Emily Carr.
Maybe instead of being shocked that some maple syrup was thrown on a painting, we should be shocked at the way we have treated our land.