The trend of climate activists vandalising prized art pieces refuses to die down. Reportedly, climate protesters glued themselves to an Andy Warhol painting at the National Art Gallery of Australia in the capital city of Canberra on Wednesday.
The protesters, two females, belonged to a group called ‘Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies Australia’ and targetted Warhol’s famous “Campbell’s Soup I” on display at the gallery.
They used an adhesive to stick themselves to the painting and burst into a monologue about the symbolism of their act.
“Andy Warhol depicted consumerism gone mad in this iconic series,” said one of the protesters before adding, “And now we have capitalism gone mad. Families are having to choose between medicine and food for their children while fossil fuel companies return record profits.”
The writing is on the wall! Or the glass at least. #StopFossilFuelSubsidies now! Get the “Picture?!#Warhol exhibition at the Australian National Gallery @NatGalleryAus Canberra#A22Network #ClimateCrisis #ArtProtest #StopFFSubsidies #AusPol2022 @GeorgeMonbiot @firstdogonmoon pic.twitter.com/yl99h0DoYo
— Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies (@stopffsubsidies) November 9, 2022
The vandalism by the duo follows in the footsteps of similar episodes carried by supposed ‘climate change activists’ across Europe and outside. The modus operandi is the same in most cases.
The activists pick a famous art piece and either vandalise it or glue themselves to it while bursting into a monologue and taping it to be uploaded on social media.
The vandalism by the two protesters in Canberra comes a week after two activists of a climate group named Extinction Rebellion, similarly glued their hands to the frames of paintings by Spanish master Francisco Goya at a museum in Madrid.
They also scrawled ‘+1.5ºC’ on the wall which was a reference to the Paris agreement of capping warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“We love it ‼️ 1.5ºC has died and yet long live the Majas, of course. We will drown but they will still be there to remind us how well it was lying while the collapse comes..” tweeted the outfit while sharing a video of the incident.
The duo was quickly detained after the incident by the police and now awaits the due judicial process.
