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Just Stop Oil smash glass on paintings at the National Gallery

Two activists arrested after Rokeby Venus artwork targeted, as dozens of others held after blocking Whitehall

Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after smashing the glass covering a Diego Velázquez painting at the National Gallery in London, as police detained dozens of others who blocked Whitehall.

Two activists targeted the glass on the Rokeby Venus painting with safety hammers before they were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.

The artwork, which was painted by Velázquez in the 1600s, was slashed by the suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914. One of those involved on Monday said: “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words.”

The Metropolitan police said at least 40 activists who were “slow marching” in Whitehall were also detained and that the road was clear after traffic was stopped for a brief period

MilitantAtheist ,

So, how is this different from ISIS blowing up ancient artifacts?

art ,
@art@lemmy.world avatar

“Why would activists pull a stunt that would bring attention to their concerns from the main stream media?”

~ Lemmy Users, Probably

NAXLAB ,

It’s crazy that they have the right idea about direct action and yet are using it on the worst possible targets.

Disrupting an art museum will not stop pollution or inconvenience the fossil fuel industry.

Take advice from MLK: Be nonviolent, but get in the way. Use methods of coercion.

funkless_eck ,

This is non violent, and is in the way, and is coercion? And it’s exactly the kind of thing that King was criticized for doing.

NAXLAB ,

No. It’s not getting in the way of fossil fuel production. It’s getting in the way of an art museum and coercing them into calling the cops to get them thrown out, achieving nothing useful in the process.

You have to disrupt and coerce the fossil fuel producers

HurlingDurling ,

Why do they hate oil paintings so much?

RGB3x3 ,

Just a misunderstanding. This group is Just Stop Oil (paintings). They hate the medium.

The other group is Just Stop Oil: the anti-oil, coal, and natural gas group.

Same name, so it’s easy to get them confused.

Mr_Blott ,

Similar to the movement that’s prominent in small Scottish fishing villages - Just Stop Watercolour

merthyr1831 ,

lol nice

Etterra ,

I find it funny that oil activists funny just go find a random piece of oil pipeline in the middle of nowhere to sabotage. Seriously, the things stretch for hundreds of miles, there can’t be a shortage of isolated segments behind no more than a chain link fence at most.

nikscha ,

There’s actually a pretty good reason why they don’t do that. Media attention. Most acts of activism are ignored. Only extreme things make it into the media (sadly). Anything short of blowing up the pipeline won’t get them media attention. How do I know that? “Letzte Generation”, a German activist group did shut down a pipeline, but nobody bothered to report about it.

brewbellyblueberry ,

Only extreme things make it into the media (sadly). Anything short of blowing up the pipeline won’t get them media attention.

I’m really not arguing against the obvious futility of fighting against these giants, but I mean, we’re here literally talking about people vandalizing paintings which honestly has absolutely fucking nothing to do with the oil industry and it’s hailed as some big statement. It’s a sad reality we live in, but things like this aren’t making anything better.

faceula ,

Yeah, we should probably do nothing. We’re not even talking about it right now.

brewbellyblueberry ,

Because wiping your ass on the entire movement is so much better than actually, really doing something! Have fun feeling high and mighty without doing anything useful.

Have fun beating that strawman…

brambledog ,

We can’t be telling the youth that it’s too late to make things better, and then criticizing them for not making things better.

If we are at the point where people who feel they have no future are destroying the past of those who took the future, we are much further away from being able to do anything than you are currently ready to confront.

brewbellyblueberry , (edited )

There is a massive difference between critique and telling people not to do anything. You enjoy that strawman as well. Jesus.

Making things worse is not a thing to be commended just for the effort, real life isn’t kindergarten, you don’t get a participation trophy. The road to hell is paved is good intentions and useful idiots do more harm than good.

jarfil , (edited )

Wait… was Nord Stream an activist job?

nikscha ,

Sure

theKalash ,

But that isn’t just a little vandalism, that carries some serious criminal charges.

alekwithak ,

Oil leak caused by activists is great PR.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Sort of a joke, given how many oil leaks our infrastructure is already riddled with.

Doing a little light domestic terrorism would be a drop in the bucket beside the enormous amount of waste polluting our groundwater and riverways. But new media would fixate on it as the de facto reason why oil spills exist, for the next twenty years.

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

What the hell is a “safety hammer”?

Sheldybear ,

A hammer designed to smash glass - it’s a ‘safety hammer’ because they are kept in cars to smash windows in emergencies where people are stuck.

nautilus ,

Dudes be like nooo stop trying to hurt the nice paper and go protest somewhere else so we can more easily ignore you

Putting the protection of art above what these people are protesting is both hilarious and also extremely depressing

brewbellyblueberry ,

Great job comprehending what you’re reading.

It’s a million times more depressing that the majority of environmentalist-minded people apparently see these publicity stunts as positive.

SkyeStarfall ,

The arts are like one of the first things to go if shit will start to go down due to climate change

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA ,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

There is this specific absolutely beautiful instrument at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. It was made out of trash by people in abject poverty. The arts might change, but it’s pretty damn hard to extinguish that creative spark people have.

brewbellyblueberry ,

Yeah, because art clearly hasn’t existed when there’s strife, crises or people are poor or suffering :D

SkyeStarfall ,

We are talking about a painting from an artist in the court of a Spanish monarch from hundreds of years ago, a type of art that museums strive to maintain via expensive means. We are not talking about more ephemeral art that doesn’t get maintained, and is eventually lost to time anyway.

Maintaining of art like this would absolutely be one of the first things to go. There is already often talks about defunding the arts even in peaceful times. Look at “went to an art school” being often thrown around as a joke about being useless even in decent times.

brewbellyblueberry , (edited )

You can talk circles around justifying this idiocy, it’s not going to make this clout chasing vandalism stunt any more clever. If justifying some kind of funding is what you want to talk about you’re free to do so, funding has never been something that stops art from existing, but that discussion is absolutely irrelevant to this thing. Besides, “the arts are one of the first things to go” isn’t talking about this one piece, it’s very general and you know it.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

But this is very easy to ignore, a bougie art gallery?

Go slash a ceos neck or something if you’re going to go to gaol anyway.

STRIKINGdebate2 OP ,
@STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world avatar

We could be seeing this soon tbh. Not that encourage it.

Grimy ,

I encourage it

Ragdoll_X ,
@Ragdoll_X@lemmy.world avatar

For legal reasons I encourage it in Roblox.

photonic_sorcerer ,

This gets just as much attention for much less jail time.

TheMauveAvenger ,

This gets almost zero lasting attention. CEOs start dropping like flies at the hands of angry citizens? Yeah, that’s going to make a bigger difference.

TheMauveAvenger ,

A lot of these goons are paid by oil to make environmentalists look bad, and they do a good job at it. Even if they are real, they are so pathetic that they wouldn’t dare to do anything that would have an actual effect on the world like you said.

jarfil ,

That’s senseless violence which doesn’t accomplish anything… CEOs are easier to replace than a painting.

ShitOnABrick , (edited )
@ShitOnABrick@lemmy.world avatar

Said “paper” has a shit ton of historical significance. art can define our culture alter our history and change our perception on things. Art like comedy or forms of media is also subjective what you may find rubbish another person may enjoy. And in my upmost opinion this isn’t protesting this is vandalism. I think it’s important that we must not forget history so we can learn from it and not repeat the mistakes of the past. and a large part of not forgetting history is restoring and maintaining pieces of art such as this… not vandalising it for a vague and nonsensical environmental message people like this and also people like you muddy the water for true discussion and debate on the environment and other topics relating to it

nautilus ,

The fact that you see vandalism and protest as mutually exclusive is really odd. Reminds me of the liberal types who claim they’re all for protesting and yet draw the line at anything past marching or petitioning maybe.

Super great deflection technique by the big oil guys by the way - everyone’s arguing over art in a museum rather than holding them accountable

jarfil ,

These people are protesting the loss of the status quo of unchecked rampant overpopulation.

There were 500 million people when that paper was made… 2 billion when the sufragettes slashed it… there are 8 billion now, and how exactly has that improved things?

Do we really want to see what 32 billion people will do to the environment?

AllonzeeLV , (edited )

I love how civilization is irrevocably fucked by its own hand and there are still peasants at the ready to scold the desperate still clinging to hope somehow for defacing the apple cart in its race to oblivion.

“Herp derp we just need to keep doing what we’re supposed to do and everything will be fine!”

panda_paddle ,

I mean, if there demands were not made of dreams and pixie dust, maybe I would get behind them. They literally have no plan beyond, “we want all oil to stop and the world to be perfect in eight years.”

AllonzeeLV ,

There’s no fairy tale where our gluttonous way of life continues undisrupted.

Either we change the way we live and continue to live on a planet worth inhabiting, or more likely we stay the course, and that decision will be made for us through deadly changes to the climate that will take generations to heal if we let it even then.

This isn’t a negotiation. This is physics. Yet humans still believe they can massage the facts into something more palatable.

mojorizer ,

It’s really funny because the system we are now living in is already made of dreams and pixie dust. Infinite growth in a world with finite resources? You have to be insane to advocate for that bullshit… or rich.

DagonPie ,
@DagonPie@kbin.social avatar

I watched that video, they def coulda smashed a lot better. Lets be real.

kralk ,

Drawing a direct line up the suffragettes is genius. History will prove them right

HeartyBeast ,
@HeartyBeast@kbin.social avatar

Hardly anyone argues again their cause being right. I’m not sure history will show that their campaign did much else than promote the misguided view that environmentalists are arseholes

brewbellyblueberry ,

Exactly, I don’t understand how this is such a controversial take apparently.

PapstJL4U ,
@PapstJL4U@lemmy.world avatar

But do you think you would have thought about Climate change this week, if not for this act?

As someone else said ab attack on oil buildings is less news worthy.

HeartyBeast ,
@HeartyBeast@kbin.social avatar

Absolutely, I would have, yes. I spent a few hours tinker with my solar panels and booked in on a weekly Oxford University climate society lecture series every Thursday.

CluckN ,

You did all of that because one time they blocked traffic

HeartyBeast ,
@HeartyBeast@kbin.social avatar

Damn - you got me!

brewbellyblueberry ,

Only thing this shit made me think about is how the fight against climate and environmental change is doomed because most people are mentally challenged. And like with the tomato soup protest, that’s what most people are going to get out of this. Great, you made the entire fight look like Don Quijote! Good job!

ArmokGoB ,

Yes. No one ever shuts up about it on this website.

SkyeStarfall ,

…a lot of people do argue against their cause, though, is the thing. We cannot wait for change to happen, we gotta force some hands.

DavidOwie ,

This isn’t forcing anyone’s hand. It just makes environmentalists look like assholes. Sure, shitting your pants in the name of whatever movement is a statement, but it’s not likely it’s one the rest want to make nor is it gonna do any good.

SkyeStarfall ,

Other protests have already been tried for decades. Didn’t seem to work.

DavidOwie , (edited )

And an obviously stupid one that makes the entire movement look idiotic is going to fix that?

Lols ,

people constantly argue against their cause being right, because their cause is we need to work on fixing the problems as much as possible and governments are not doing that

TheMauveAvenger ,

Settle down with the formatting.

Lols ,

no

brihuang95 ,
@brihuang95@sopuli.xyz avatar

lol not this shit again. what was the group of people that were slashing the tires of SUVs to “save the planet”?

Redscare867 ,

I don’t believe that was the same group, but I’m fairly certain that protest just involved leaving a note on the windshield and using a lentil to deflate the tires. Their notes did touch in the environmental impact of SUVs, but from what I recall the notes focused on the negative impacts that SUVs have in cities. Such as the skyrocketing number of pedestrian deaths we are seeing.

ShitOnABrick ,
@ShitOnABrick@lemmy.world avatar

It’s still quite an asshole move. Certainly doesn’t bring people to your cause. Prehaps maybe they should just consider speaking to the owner of the vehicle or maybe leave a leaflet with some contact information. underneath the cars window wiper and call it a day that’ll bring more people to your cause than causing them some hardship these people should aim to win hearts and souls not crack skulls or… deflate vehicle tires and cause severe traffic accidents

Not only that what if the owner is in a hury and doesn’t notice the deflated tires and continues his daily commute or what have you

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

So switch to acryllic paintings? :) Who knew art supply fans were so dogmatic.

brewbellyblueberry ,

Aren’t these the same idiots who threw food at the paintilngs and people defended them with “well the paintings are covered with protective glass either way so they’re not doing any harm, just publicity for a good cause”? Like I’m all for protesting and especially old fashioned ways that do more harm than good, but these people are just assholes trying to destroy invaluable art which is never going to do anything positive for their cause and on top of it all is literally so misguided. No oil company or production or anything is gonna give a fuck about some old painting and this only gives assholes ammo to paint these kinds of movements unhinged. It’s like they’re paid actors to make it look bad.

burchalka ,

Yep, the one where they broke into airport and painted private jets made a bit more sense…

STRIKINGdebate2 OP ,
@STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world avatar

The planet is literally dying. A painting ain’t worth shit in the grand scheme of things. This has always been a popular tactic for protests the article mentioned the suffragettes doing the exact same thing to the exact same painting.

brewbellyblueberry , (edited )

I’m not arguing for the value of the paintings but the idiocy of the protest. If it worked for the suffragettes (where it is even fathom able that it might have some relevance to the protest, unlike here) good for them, but this is nothing like that. This just paints them as idiots and does very little less. A common tactic used by the whatever shitty thing that’s supposedly being protested is to make fools of the protesting party. Even though this is apparently just idiots making everybody in the movement look bad. Yay. Lotta good that does…

If these idiotic stunts aren’t a smear campaign, these morons are doing their work for them.

spacecowboy ,

This is exactly what was said about the suffragettes. Give your head a shake.

brewbellyblueberry ,

There are no parallels you can seriously draw from this shit to the suffragette movement.

spacecowboy ,

Oh fuck off would you?

brewbellyblueberry ,

Grow up.

You don’t have an argument, just don’t reply, like an adult. No need for childish insults.

ShitOnABrick , (edited )
@ShitOnABrick@lemmy.world avatar

This is about the vandalism of a painting not the women suffragette movement are you ok? There are no parallels to be connected here

spacecowboy ,

That same painting was defaced in protest by the suffragettes. What the fuck are you on about

fubo ,

The planet is not, in fact, dying. A lot of species that humans care about are dying. The bedbugs and termites and rats are doing fine; it’s the corals and butterflies and emperor penguins that are having trouble.

(This is an important distinction because of the existence of human extinctionists: those who think that humans should kill ourselves off so that life can prosper in our absence. Thing is, only humans care about what’s going on in a different continent from our own. A polar bear does not care what happens to penguins.)

skulblaka ,
@skulblaka@kbin.social avatar

They'll suddenly care an awful lot when fish dying out means penguins and seals dying out means polar bears dying out. There is no creature that exists in a vacuum.

DreamerofDays ,

To the best of our knowledge, they still won’t care about the other creatures in the web going extinct. We don’t have any evidence of animals global or species-wide conceptualisation. This doesn’t make it right, just that anthropomorphising animals and animal thought isn’t a good argument.

But you’re right— no creature exists in a vacuum. The decisions we make matter, and having this abstract conception of the world gives us a moral obligation to be stewards of it. Some of that stewardship is about restoring and preserving what exists in the wild. Some of that stewardship means honoring the bonds we have made and the responsibilities we have taken on to animals we have domesticated. And some of that stewardship means acknowledging that our constructed environments have also become the homes and habitats of wild critters.

This is all to say— we need to do better, but no good answer will be simple, and nothing comes without consequences.

fubo ,

I was being literal. A polar bear can’t find out what’s going on in Antarctica, nor does it have the mental capacity to think about the environmental systems that affect its well-being. All it can do is get hungry and starve. :(

There is no other species on earth besides humans capable of being environmentalists.

joelthelion ,
@joelthelion@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t understand why they keep targeting art. Wouldn’t smashing car windows (for example!) make more sense?

STRIKINGdebate2 OP ,
@STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world avatar

Because art gets them more publicity. Also if they are going around smashing car windows then they are liable to thousands in fines due to criminal damage, turn the general public against them even more so than they already are and it will likely legitimise tough laws being created against this group.

PugJesus ,
@PugJesus@kbin.social avatar

... do you think they aren't going to be liable for damaging art that is worth as much as or more than most common cars?

STRIKINGdebate2 OP ,
@STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world avatar

No. Because the paintings are protected by glass.

smac ,

But they're smashing the glass . . .

DavidOwie ,

They literally escalated from just throwing food to trying to damage the actual artwork. Get real.

ChronosWing ,

They smashed the glass… are you blind or just stupid?

topinambour_rex ,
@topinambour_rex@lemmy.world avatar

Because art gets them more publicity.

Out of curiosity, how many news articles about them throwing paints on oil company owned building or luxury cars dealership did you shared ?

foggy ,

Art is an investment rich people use to stay wealthy, I think it’s symbolic. They’re in a ln odd way attacking institutional wealth, which tracks for an organization that calla themselves “Stop Oil.”

I don’t know that this is their take, but it’s my reading on the repeated choice to attack fine art.

brewbellyblueberry ,

Art isn’t only that though and if that’s the point it’s going to go unnoticed and unrealized by most people rendering any symbolism or point moot. A circlejerk where people pat themselves on the back on the oh-so-deep symbolism and historical callbacks is not going to change anything but the brunches of some pretentious assholes who think they’re saving the world when they’re actually doing more harm than good.

This is more like protesting the fur industry by releasing the caged, tortured animals into the wild to wreak more havoc as an invasive species to the enviroment and ecosystem they’re released into, but at least people can cheers themselves for making a difference.

ArcaneSlime ,

As a poor person who loves art in many mediums, this is a pretty bleak and depressing take. Yes some art is that, but there’s a reason people travel from all the world over to see the Sistine Chapel or the Eiffel Tower. There’s a reason poor people feeling like their voice isn’t heard pick up a pen or a brush, or film, or a spray can, etc.

topinambour_rex ,
@topinambour_rex@lemmy.world avatar

Throwing paint on buildings owned owned by oil companies make more sense, but it never reach the news.

xkforce ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    SuperIce ,

    I’m not sure what you mean by “sure it would”.

    topinambour_rex ,
    @topinambour_rex@lemmy.world avatar

    They did it. Several times, before to throw paint on art. How many articles did you read about it ?

    BirdyBoogleBop ,

    They have also targeted luxury car dealerships. People said the exact same things they always say when they do anything.

    DavidOwie , (edited )

    Just because their other attempts at protests failed to make the statement they were aiming for doesn’t make this one any better. If they have a track record of doing stupid shit it’s hardly a testament to their feigned statements.

    fubo ,

    I’m guessing it’s a class/luxury thing. Cars are mostly owned by workers; smashing them puts the cost on those individual workers.

    tetris11 ,
    @tetris11@lemmy.ml avatar

    That would be attacking the public though. Destroying Art is something that is technically accessible to all, but practically only studied and coveted by the wealthy (who have time and financial assets to pursue it)

    BradleyUffner ,

    It kind of makes sense to me for environmental protests, as in “we only have one earth, just like we only have one of this painting”.

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