Climate Protestors Have Explained Why They Threw Soup On A Van Gogh Painting
"I want to make one thing perfectly clear, we did no damage to the painting whatsoever."
One activist behind the political stunt that saw a Van Gogh painting worth $130 million vandalised with tomato soup has given a detailed rationale justifying the move as civil disobedience,
In case you missed it, two protestors from Just Stop Oil made global headlines this week after throwing two cans of Heinz tomato soup at Van Gogh’s painting ‘Sunflowers’ in London’s National Gallery. While the painting was undamaged thanks to a protective layer of glass, the action has invoked equal parts praise and damnation online, with some commentators even alleging the stunt was a conspiracy orchestrated by oil groups to make environmental protestors look bad.
Now, one of the young protestors behind the stunt has cleared the record, giving a detailed explanation to TikTok as to why the group targeted London’s National Gallery as a site of protest, instead of pursuing spaces with a more direct connection to the fossil fuel industry.
“I want to make one thing perfectly clear, we did no damage to the painting whatsoever,” twenty-one-year-old Just Stop Oil protester Phoebe Plumer said.
“We never ever would have considered doing it if we didn’t know that it was behind glass and that we wouldn’t do any damage.”
“I recognise it looks like a totally ridiculous action…but we’re not asking the question ‘should everyone be throwing soup on paintings’, what we’re doing is getting the conversation going so we can ask the questions that matter.”
“Questions like is it okay that Liz Truss is licensing over 100 new fossil fuel licenses, is it okay that fossil fuels are subsidised 30 times more than renewables when offshore wind is currently nine times cheaper?
listen to her explain the Van Gogh soup protest.
she’s got a point, no? pic.twitter.com/cObcWNx8aP
— michael mezz (@michaelmezz) October 18, 2022
Later in the video, Plumer attributes the global history of civil resistance to the current framework of LGBTQI+ rights, asserting that similar acts are required to avert a climate catastrophe.
“We know that civil resistance works, I’ve stood here today as a queer woman, and the reason I’m able to vote, the reason I’m able to go to university, hopefully someday marry the person I love, is because people have taken part in civil resistance before me.”
The trend of environmental activists protesting in art galleries has also popped up down here in Australia, with two Extinction Rebellion protestors in Melbourne arrested recently for gluing themselves to a Picasso painting.