The trend of protesting the fossil fuel industry and calling for the protection of the environment in art galleries continues. We covered the style and frequency of these actions last year in Why Do Climate Change Activists Throw Food at Art? Now a work of art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) in Perth has taken centre stage in the advent of provocations which draw attention to a desire to protect the environment, cultural heritage and art.
Late last week at AGWA two protestors gathered, both wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase ‘Disrupt Burrup Hub’. One spray painted a stencil of the Woodside (an oil and gas company) logo and name over the protective perspex shield which covered a Frederick McCubbin painting titled ‘Down on his luck’, which depicts a failed gold prospector. The painting was unharmed. The other protestor unfurled the Aboriginal flag placing it gently across the floor and acknowledged his respect for elders and ancestors before beginning to explain why the pair were there.
He alleged ‘As I stand here today an artwork that is sacred to our people is being destroyed in Western Australia. Woodside Petroleum is the largest fossil fuel project in Australia … We must protect our cultural heritage and artwork. This painting is barely 100 years old. We have a 50,000 year old artwork that Woodside is destroying.”
The protest appears to have been carried out by ceramic artist Joana Partyka and Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton. Blurton is a housing advocate and Deaths in Custody Watch Committee member. Partyka also addressed the crowd and concluded ‘We must Disrupt Burrup Hub now before it is too late and before we lose irreplaceable rock art.’
The Burrup peninsula, known as Murujuga to the traditional owners, holds the the largest and oldest collection of petroglyphs (rock art) in the world.
The Guardian reported that the artist McCubbin’s great-granddaughter Margot Edwards said of the action “He would have laughed out loud and supported this very clever protest, which has not harmed his painting in any way and has opened an important conversation.” The Guardian also added that several other descendants “said the protesters were justified in their actions and that the McCubbin family had a long tradition of environmental activism themselves.”