New band Green Kite Midnight spent the early part of Tuesday evening serenading those
attending the BP Portrait ceremony with a series of tunes inspired in part
by visions of BP decommissioned. NPG employees were very helpful, (though
they were outnumbered by BP and BP-funded security men), and we set up our
banner and instruments just beneath one of the 'supported by BP'
statements on one of the huge posters on either side of the door. (It
seems that some people thought we might have been invited by BP. Ah
well...)
Below is the text of a message sent to one of this year's finalists, which
I hope is of interest. I also hope some of the points it raises feature in
any review of BP that the gallery might undertake before it decides
whether the contract with BP is renewed in 2012. And of course, any
ripples - or even waves - of concern from within the ranks of NPG
employees could make all the difference...
Cheers,
An Art Not Oiler
PS. Here's a picture of us outside the British Museum on night of its (activist-postponed) centenary party, 6.5.09)
And that night we were joined by the very naughty and very dead gaggle of oil zombies, who tried with all their might to get into BP's party...
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Dear
I saw that your painting had been selected as a finalist for the 2009 BP
Portrait Award - for which congratulations - and wanted to write to let
you know of our concerns about BP sponsorship.
Art Not Oil is a Rising Tide-run campaign that has been running since
2004. We believe that when a fossil fuel company has its logo connected to
a high profile cultural institution such as the NPG, it's likely to
receive undeserved kudos, and that public attention may be diverted away
from the fact that we are facing a planetary climate emergency, with the
long-term survival of our species, not to mention countless others, under
threat.
It seems pretty clear that we need to cut drastically the burning oil &
gas - the products that make up by the far the largest part of BP's
portfolio of energy interests - within the next few years, if we're to
have a chance of averting some terrifying consequences. And a cut like
that would be a relief to communities and ecosystems around the world that
are bearing the brunt of oil extraction. It's very disturbing, then, that
BP is looking around for new ways to bring the last, most polluting
barrels of oil to market.
Many people pay tribute to the way oil companies and other corporations
stepped in to fill the gap created when Margaret Thatcher et al
turbocharged free market ideologies in part by slashing public funding for
the arts. I would argue that there would be a great deal of public support
for a campaign amongst top (and other) cultural institutions to be able to
free themselves from reputationally damaging oily relationships, by an
injection of public money. And if there were cries of 'There is no
money!', perhaps the campaign could call for a diversion of funds away
from military occupations that revolve around a mistaken need to secure
future oil reserves?
I won't go into much detail as to the problems connected to this form of
sponsorship - there is a fair amount about it on our website, and there is
some excellent work being done by PLATFORM on all this, but with
particular detail attention being paid to the way BP appears to be
shedding what small claims it once had to be beginning a journey towards
going 'beyond petroleum'. You can find their work here:
http://www.carbonweb.org/burning/capital/
I would be very keen to hear your thoughts on this issue, and of course
would be delighted if you felt able to raise any concerns you may have
more publicly.
Thanks for reading,
Yours,
Mark Brown, (Art Not Oil)
PS. Here are some points from our 'What's Right with BP?' leaflet:
* ‘Climate change is claiming 300,000 lives a year and costing the global
economy $125bn annually, with the damage set to escalate rapidly,
according to the first study of the immediate effects of global warming. A
further 300m people around the world are seriously affected by climate
change through, for instance, malnutrition, disease or by being displaced
from their homes, according to a report from the Global Humanitarian
Forum.’ (Financial Times, 30.5.09).
* Beyond Petroleum? 'BP replaces [oil & gas] 2008 production by 121% &
aims to grow annual output through to 2020'; (BP Press Release March 2009)
* ‘BP profits soar 148%’, Guardian, 28.10.08.
* ‘BP and Shell have discussed with the government the prospect of
claiming a stake in Iraq's oil reserves in the aftermath of war.’
Financial Times, 11.3.03.
* In 2007, BP bought 50% of the Sunrise oil tar sands field in Canada. Tar
sands are most polluting of all the fossil fuels. ‘Canadian wilderness set
to be invaded by BP in
an oil project dubbed “The biggest environmental crime in history”',
Independent, 10.12.07; www.tarsandswatch.org
* ‘Exposed: BP, its pipeline, and an environmental time-bomb’,
Independent, (26.6.04) on BP’s US-inspired and protected
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil & gas pipelines, which will produce over 150m
tonnes of CO2 each year for 40 years, causing untold damage to the world’s
climate; baku.org.uk
* ‘BP slated for 'systemic lapses', FT, 18.8.05; 15 workers were killed
and 500 injured in an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery on March 23rd
2005.
* ‘BP doubles corporate ad budget in $150m bid for greener image’, Times,
28.12.05;
* ‘Oil gushes into Arctic Ocean from BP pipeline’, 265,000 gallons, to be
more exact. Independent, 21.3.06
--
Art Not Oil: for creativity, climate justice and an end to fossil fuel
industry sponsorship of the arts. Look out for our nigh-on irresistible
2010 desk diary, available from September.
Also, 'What's right with BP?' postcards now available
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES; 07709 545116
www.artnotoil.org.uk - send us your art!
www.risingtide.org.uk
See also www.climatecamp.org.uk
as well as Climate Indymedia: climateimc.org
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