Two climate activists took a bizarre approach to speak out against the use of fossil fuels.
The protesters are part of a group called Just Stop Oil and were identified as Louis McKechnie and Emily Brocklebank.
They took it upon themselves to glue themselves to the frame of a Vincent Van Gogh painting at the Courtauld Gallery in London.
“Sorry everybody, we don’t want to be doing this,” McKenchie said.
He added, “We’re here glued to this painting, this beautiful painting, because we’re terrified for our future. We’re here from a group called Just Stop Oil. We expect to be arrested today.”
McKenchie went on to argue new fossil fuel projects are like “signing our death warrants.”
According to the protester, the reason for the demonstration is because “we’ve tried everything else.”
Watch the video below:
Two climate activists glued themselves to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting at an art gallery in London, footage posted on June 30 showed.
— Storyful (@Storyful) July 1, 2022
Just Stop Oil via Storyful pic.twitter.com/o9qJXDuzth
Both protesters issued their own individual statements.
“As a kid I used to love this painting, my dad took me to see it when we visited London. I still love this painting, but I love my friends and family more, I love nature more. I value the future survival of my generation more highly than my public reputation,” McKenchie said.
According to McKenchie, “It is immoral for cultural institutions to stand by and watch whilst our society descends into collapse. Galleries should close. Directors of art institutions should be calling on the government to stop all new oil and gas projects immediately. We are either in resistance or we are complicit.”
Brocklebank explained she took action because “I can’t live in a bubble of normality when society is collapsing around us and people in the global south are suffering so much.”
She accused billionaires of “getting richer whilst nurses queue at food banks, tens of millions of people across the world are starving and half the world’s population is exposed to extreme danger from heatwaves, floods, fires and famine.”
Brocklebank claimed the art establishment, politicians and fossil fuel companies “look the other way.”
Art is also important to Brocklebank.
“It captures history and a moment in time, but artists and the art establishment are failing us by focusing on the wrong things,” Brocklebank said.
She added, “We need everyone to focus on the government’s genocidal plans to allow fossil fuel companies to drill for more oil. This is one of the greatest injustices in history. We must resist.”
