Latest news with #BUTCHERED
The Star
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Greenpeace stages Anish Kapoor art protest on British gas platform
Greenpeace climbers install a work by renowned artist Anish Kapoor titled 'Butchered' onto a Shell platform in the North Sea on Aug 13. Photo: Reuters Greenpeace activists have unfurled a massive anti-fossil fuel canvas by renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor on a North Sea platform in a rare protest on an active offshore gas rig, the group said on Thursday. Seven Greenpeace climbers scaled Shell's Skiff gas platform, 45 nautical miles off the Norfolk coast in eastern England, and attached the 12m (40 feet) by eight-metre (26 feet) work, entitled BUTCHERED. They then pumped 1,000 litres of a "blood-red" mixture, composed of seawater, beetroot powder, and non-toxic dye, onto the canvas. British-Indian artist Kapoor said the work reflected the "butchery" that oil companies are "inflicting on our planet." BUTCHERED is a "visual scream that gives voice to the calamitous cost of the climate crisis, often on the most marginalised communities across the globe," he added. Renowned artist Anish Kapoor's work titled 'Butchered', installed by Greenpeace climbers, hangs from a Shell platform in the North Sea on Aug 13. Photo: Reuters A Shell UK spokesperson said the protest was "extremely dangerous, involved illegally trespassing, and put their own and others' lives at risk." The stunt came as much of southern Europe suffered a relenless heatwave with the tinderbox conditions helping the spread of many deadly wildfires. The extreme heat, which scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying, has fuelled blazes and strained firefighters from Greece to Portugal. Parts of Britain also experienced the fourth heatwave of the summer season, with several regions in England facing drought conditions. Philip Evans, senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said the artwork was a "visual gut-punch that makes visible the suffering and damage caused by the oil and gas industry right at the place where the harm begins." Shell and Greenpeace last December settled a lawsuit brought by the British energy giant after environmental protesters boarded a ship carrying an oil and gas platform near the Canary Islands for several days. In that agreement, Greenpeace also agreed that demonstrators would not go within 500m of three Shell North Sea sites for five years, and a fourth site for a decade. - AFP
Hypebeast
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Anish Kapoor and Climate Activists Take Over Gas Rig with 'BUTCHERED'
Summary Activists from the climate organizationGreenpeacehave unveiled a new artwork byAnish Kapooron a Shell gas platform in the North Sea. Titled 'BUTCHERED,' the artwork arrives as the UK records its fourth heatwave of the summer, and in thewords of Kapoor, is 'a reference to the destruction – the bleeding – of our globe of our state, of being.' On the morning of August 13, seven Greenpeace members scaled Shell's Skiff platform, located 45 nautical miles off the coast of Norfolk before mounting a 12-by-8 meter canvas to the side of the rig. The activists then used a high-pressure hose to pump 1,000 liters of 'blood' – a mixture made from seawater, beetroot powder and food-based dye – onto its surface. According toThe Guardian, 'BUTCHERED' is believed to be the first fine artwork displayed on an active gas extraction platform. In a recent statement, the group wrote that the piece brings light to the 'wound inflicted on both humanity and the Earth by the fossil fuel industry,' evoking the 'collective grief and pain at what has been lost, but also a cry for reparation.' 'I wanted to make something visual, physical, visceral to reflect the butchery they are inflicting on our planet,' Kapoor expressed, 'a visual scream that gives voice to the calamitous cost of the climate crisis, often on the most marginalized communities across the globe.' 'BUTCHERED is an action that happens at the place where this violation starts – a gas platform in the middle of the sea,' he continued. '[It] attempts to bring home the horror, giving voice to the moral and physical destruction caused by ruthless profiteers.' This isn't the first time the artist stepped up to face Big Gas. In 2019, Kapoor joined a league of 78 British artists – among them Sarah Lucas andAntony Gormley– in calling for London's National Portrait Gallery tosever ties with BPin lieu of their 30-year sponsorship.
