Greenpeace activists have installed a new artwork created by sculptor and visual artist Anish Kapoor onto an active Shell gas platform in the North Sea.
A group of seven Greenpeace climbers scaled the platform, located 45 nautical miles off the Norfolk coast, early on Wednesday.
They then fastened the 12 metre by 8 metre canvas onto the structure and sprayed it with 1,000 litres of a blood-red liquid. The performance lasted ten-minute and left a giant crimson stain on the fabric.
The "blood" solution was a biodegradable mix of seawater, beetroot powder, organic decaf coffee granules and a food-based pond dye. In a video released by Greenpeace, the mixture can bee seen dripping into the sea.
The artwork, entitled ‘BUTCHERED’, “symbolises the deep wounds the fossil fuel industry has left on our planet – and the harm it continues to cause people, in its relentless pursuit of profit”, the NGO said in a statement.
Anish Kapoor, who is known for his large-scale and sometimes controversial public sculptures, created the original protest piece specifically for this action. He described his work as “physical, visceral”, and “a visual scream.”
“‘BUTCHERED’ is also a tribute to the heroic work done in opposition to this destruction, and to the tireless activists who choose to disrupt, disagree and disobey,” he said.
The canvas is the first ever fine art piece to be installed on an active fossil fuel platform, according to the NGO.
Kapoor joined the Polluters Pay Pact, a global Greenpeace initiative demanding that oil, coal and gas corporations pay for the climate damage they have caused.
This is not the first time the sculptor takes a stance on climate issues. In 2019, Kapoor was part of a group of artists who called on the National Portrait Gallery in London to sever its ties with oil giant BP.
Greenpeace's performance took place on the back of severe summer heatwaves throughout Europe. “Extreme weather is hitting close to home, but the extraction of fossil fuels driving the climate crisis is often out of sight,” said Greenpeace UK senior campaigner Philip Evans.
“This artwork is 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.”
