Across the world, the latest form of woke protest about things, usually Leftist people don’t like, is to try to deface paintings with paint, then to glue themselves to walls, floors and who knows what. This is not to say that every aspect of the grievance is unfounded, but there are legal ways of protesting that are more effective. What is presently being done does get attention, but bad attention is worse than no attention, as it turns many people off the cause. If for example, indigenous artwork in the outback is threatened, surely the courts are the place to deal with this and get some action.
“The Art Gallery of Western Australia’s most significant and internationally renowned painting, Frederick McCubbin’s Down on his luck, has been defaced with a Woodside logo.
The masterpiece, which has been part of the gallery’s collection since 1896 and was valued at $3m a decade ago, was spraypainted with the oil and gas giant’s logo in yellow on Thursday morning.
The filmed incident then showed the two protesters unfurl an Aboriginal flag on the floor of the gallery and make an acknowledgement of Country, before one of the protesters glued her hand to the gallery wall.
It was believed the work was not seriously damaged in the protest, with the painting sitting behind a sheet of clear perspex.
Two artists were involved in the action, the latest in a series of acts of art vandalism in Australia and abroad to draw public attention to the climate crisis.
The Perth ceramic artist and illustrator Joana Partyka and Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton said in a statement they had defaced the painting to draw attention to Woodside’s “ongoing desecration of sacred Murujuga rock art” at the Burrup peninsula, more than 1,200km north of Perth in the Pilbara.
Partyka was arrested at the scene. Blurton left the gallery at the request of security guards before the police arrived.
“This painting is barely 100 years old,” Blurton said in the statement.
“Woodside is destroying 50,000 years of our culture.”
The statement demanded the company cease its operations on the Burrup, as part of a new direct action campaign by a WA-based group called Disrupt Burrup Hub, which is targeting Woodside.
“Toxic emissions from Woodside’s Burrup Hub are destroying the oldest, largest rock art gallery in the world,” said Partyka in the statement.
“Incredible artists from this region are displayed in this gallery. Their home, the country they paint, is currently underwater [from recent flooding]. Woodside like to slap their logo on everything while they spray their toxic emissions all over sacred rock art. We must stop any more industry on the Burrup, or soon there will be no art left.”
Last year the WA Environment Protection Authority (EPA) advised the state government it should extend Woodside’s North West Shelf gas development in the Pilbara – reportedly Australia’s biggest polluting fossil fuel development – for a further 50 years until 2070.