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Just Stop Oil Activists Who Threw Tomato Soup at Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ Get Prison Time (www.artnews.com)
submitted 2 months ago by TokenBoomer@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world
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ArtNews.com

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[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 94 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Judge Christopher Hehir told Plummer and Holland they “came within the width of a pane of glass of destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world”

Meanwhile the people they are protesting are already destroying the planet which includes this artwork. And hey, that "pane of glass" is there to protect the artwork which it successfully did.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The judge's statement is so disingenuous, designed to deceive rather than to promote a realistic view of actions and consequences. They didn't throw a can at the painting and luckily the glass held, they splashed some soup, with no chance of piercing the glass and doing no damage to it, and if the pane of glass wasn't there they wouldn't have done it.

Damaging the frame is something he can complain about, but the painting was never in danger. There's definitely some political thrust to these overwrought and deceptive sentences the UK is giving to climate activists.

[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Not only is it covered with glass the painting is also coated in a synthetic varnish that can easily be cleaned and replaced without harming the actual paint layer. Prison is too oppressive for something that can be cleaned for less than a grand.

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 49 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Notice how every headline talking about these protests makes it sound like they damaged the painting. Including this one.

And it's working, as you can see from the comments here.

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Here's the Lady herself explaining her actions (which in no way damaged the painting).

Absolutely ridiculous that they're given any time at all.

EDIT a letter

[–] bouldering_barista@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I'm not giving twitter any more clicks, but sounds like it's worth watching.

https://youtu.be/PkkaIq2FV8U?si=FkX12jii6bMB24rd

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Can they appeal and where do we donate to thier defense?

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

No way * Extraneous w in there changing the meaning of your post.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago

And yet the people ruthlessly pillaging the planet as we all plea for them to stop get to keep compounding their wealth while world leaders aid them. Fuck this world. The art won't matter when no humans are around to appreciate it.

[–] Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I hope it's no more than 2 days in jail. Putting someone in jail for longer than the time it takes to clean up a foodstuff they threw at an inanimate object would be ludicrous and cruel wouldn't it?

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Given the “sentences” given to the elite, I’m surprised this wasn’t a fine. But then again, these people aren’t the elite.

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 months ago

Some climate action activists in the UK recently got 5 year sentences. I'm worried for these people because even though they knew the risks of bashing up against the UK's absurdly draconian anti-protest laws (and props to their bravery), the recent sentences were shocking and felt like another level of escalation beyond what most people were expecting.

"Ludicrous and cruel" is certainly the description for it

[–] ynazuma@lemmy.world -3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Unpopular opinion. This is a terrible way to protest

Climate change is THE issue. I have seen first hand glaciers disappear over the last 10 years. Protests need to happen.

However endangering and/or damaging irreplaceable historical objects and art is not going to win you any friends and is not the way to protest. These guys look like loons to the general population. Most people would consider them vandals rather than protesters

[–] Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 months ago

Yeah, but, unfortunately,

  1. Your opinion is not unpopular, it's the most common one

And

  1. This is a proven, and wonderfully effective way to protest. Getting the media to report on things at all, is an enormous, and repeatedly researched driver of discussion and awareness. And the climate emergency is not acted upon enough, and the continued criminal actions of the Oil industry are also painfully underreported.

I wish from the bottom of my heart this natural sense of justice of yours was the way to solve these issues, but those rich fucks are literally relying on, and fanning the flames of this mental pitfall, to keep people more passive on this issue.

Data and science says this protest, just like most other protests, works.

Protest in any way you see fit, different kinds of protest "work" on different people and structures. Just go and actually participate in whichever you believe in.

[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

TBH if they had damaged the painting I'd be pissed, but if oil execs started suddenly falling out of windows Moscow style I really wouldn't care. I don't know if your opinion is actually unpopular, but I agree with it

[–] Gumbyyy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

The painting was never in any danger of being damaged, and I'm certain these protesters knew that ahead of time.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world -5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I know it’s not popular in this community, but we really need to understand that protest takes on many forms, and the Stop Oil protests have - for whatever reason - focused on a very unhelpful form.

We could talk about the reasons for that particular focus, or the other forms of protest that would be better.

[–] cubism_pitta@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Everyone always tells protesters they are protesting wrong but we are talking about Just Stop Oil right now due the their protest.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Which protests would you approve of, and would anyone know they even happened beyond those who physically encountered them? Maybe some orderly sign waving on the side of a non-major road so no drivers are distracted?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Are you familiar with civil rights protests?

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes, big fan.

First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

[–] petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago

I love this quote.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, now: Where did civil rights protestors - protest?

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

On roads and bridges, which the white moderates of their time decried because it was disruptive and made the protest movement look bad.

Bloody Sunday

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Indeed.

Now. Explain why they’re all in suits.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh, is your complaint now that the Just Stop Oil activists weren't dressed nicely enough? If they were in their Sunday best would you say "ok, now they're protesting right"?

Do you really not see that you're doing exactly what King railed against? The hero of nonviolent protests, the Civil Rights leader so revered after the fact he gets a holiday, was constantly harangued for being too disruptive to the peace of white moderates. "I believe in your cause, but you need to do it in a different way so that no one is bothered." It's called concern trolling now, but it's just the same shit different day.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Same complaint, not new.

“During the civil rights movement, when you look at someone like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Ralph Abernathy or John Lewis, all of these figures; Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, and all the women who stood right next to the men to help drive a lot of the civil rights movement… they were dressed in a particular way that was traditional to the standards of fashion protocol of the time,” Lisby says. “They wanted their messages to be heard. I think, inherently, there is this idea that what you wear matters, and for those white people who were in power, visually, they needed to be able to receive what was being heard so that we can push the movement forward.”

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/09/9991107/protest-fashion-clothing-uniform-history-blm

No one “hears” Stop Oil (or whatever their name is/are). They’re metaphorically driving a car through the diner’s window and running off. What the fuck is that. That’s a Tourette's episode, not a protest. That’s a spoiled child’s tantrum, not a plea for action. It’s a random aggression, not a collective call.

What are we supposed to hear them say? Look, they’re going to prison because their genius idea was to . . . throw soup? On a painting?? Okay, that’s. That’s deep, I guess? I don’t get it. I don’t get the meaning. Is the soup supposed to be oil? Why didn’t they just use oil? It - it’s fucking stupid. And I ALREADY AGREE WITH THEM. That’s how stupid an act it is. They really either need to re-think their methods, or just expect to be vilified by all sides for doing stupid stunts.

I don’t respect it, I don’t agree with it, they didn’t even say anything, and now when I argue to cut oil use I get lumped in with these colicky children.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This is literally the white moderates. All these same arguments were made about blocking roads or sit-ins at diners and the "reasonable" moderate of the time dispassionately agreed with their cause but passionately disagreed with their actions. How immature of those negroes to disrupt roadways, don't they know it makes the moderates angry to be lumped in with them when they offhandedly mention that black people should have voting rights at a barbeque before changing the subject to something less divisive?

https://news.gallup.com/vault/246167/protests-seen-harming-civil-rights-movement-60s.aspx

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is the same argument. It’s not the same thing.

Look, is blowing up a bus an effective protest?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Hey here’s some protests you’ll like. https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c728897wz85o