While I appreciate the depth of feeling and the inequalities associated with money spent on fripperies such as art while existential climate threats loom large, soup, glue and mashed potatoes thrown or smeared on works of art are going to do little more than cost more money in restoration and repairs. The equational links between existential threat and art ownership seem overrated to say the least. The symbolic gesture of ‘destroying’ the accumulated status symbols of the rich will do nothing to slow down or even alleviate the self-inflicted demise of the human race. This is simply another face of the anarchism practiced by groups with pseudo-philosophical agendas throughout the 20th century who saw the destruction of privileged society by blowing up public buildings or kidnapping officials, as fruitful endeavour on behalf of the have-nots even though scuttlebutt had it that the protesters came from positions of privilege themselves and had never been of the have-nots in the first place.
Last week German collector Hasso Plattner temporarily closed his museum after climate activists threw mashed potatoes at his $111 Million Monet at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam. Its director, Ortrud Westheider, is considering pursuing a claim against the protestors for damages. And on August 23, two climate activists from the German group Letzte Generation glued their hands to the frame of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna in Dresden while on October 19, 14 activists from the environmentalist group Scientist Rebellion staged a sit-in protest at Volkswagen’s Autostadt museum in Wolfsburg, gluing themselves to the floor of a Porsche display. The protestors called for speed limits of 100 kilometers per hour to be imposed in Germany. The museum recognized their right to protest so the scientists were not removed by the authorities and instead were left on the premises overnight until the sitters threatened a hunger strike.
Scientist Rebellion stated that “Volkswagen is not keen on too much attention for their climate failure’. You could say the same of any large company, particularly those involved in mining coal and gas but when as in Australia the recent budget-balancing exercise was predicated on the sale of such commodities to other countries who may well be precipitating the demise of human society, reducing the speed limit may save the odd life but will do little to slow down existentialism.
Art in museums seems to be an easy target. The public are invited in and whether they end up appreciating the art or not, the considered opinion is that their lives will be the richer for the experience even if they can’t afford to live in the present economic climate. This is the ‘religious’ experience where attending church on a Sunday not only reminds you of the rewards to come but offers clear separation between an institution which displays its wealth and those from whom the wealth is extracted in the first place. I doubt that Porche regard themselves as a religious institution even when owning a Porche may well be seen as a religious experience in itself. Gluing yourself to the floor of the showroom will certainly add nuisance value to the daily working of the enterprise while gluing yourself to the coachwork of a 911 Cayenne may elicit cries of sacrilege, but slowing down a Porche on a German autobahn will undoubtedly be seen as the equivalent of removing a television from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
All of this may be moot in the near future anyway. Recently the Australian Capital Territory [the seat of Parliament] decreed that all future car registrations will be only for electric vehicles as petrol and diesel vehicles will be phased out in spite of considerable budget-balancing revenue from sales of fuel each year. Given the limited battery life of electric vehicles, few would consider owning one a privilege anyway and you are hardly likely to see Formula One vehicles making the switch any time soon.
Can the same be said of art bought on behalf of the nation and displayed in the national Art Gallery in Canberra? It would seem to be fair game for protesters, anarchist or otherwise. There is a very expensive Pollock hanging on the wall [well barely – more like falling off the canvas] and other examples of work bought on behalf of the nation for the cultural betterment of all. Attacking it would no doubt reinforce the negativity about ‘modern’ art rife in the community and undoubtedly force a total rethink by the Australian Government on climate policy as sandbag levees rise on either side of major waterways as they pass though townships about to suffer their third flood in as many years. There are those that might think that smearing mashed potato all over said Pollock might even improve it but facing down ‘El Nino’ is a different matter entirely to say nothing of the prediction published recently of a major earthquake in Adelaide to match the one that destroyed the cultural capital of New Zealand. Attacking the ‘Malls Balls’ or the pigeon or pigs as noted examples of publicly-displayed privilege in the Adelaide community, may well provide momentary delight among the have-nots regularly appearing on the evening news as they target service stations in search of cash and cigarettes [it’s never food as you might expect] but stopping an earthquake – we can only hope.
As Volkswagon recognised, there is a universal right to protest about injustice and inequality and for all of the groups who regularly gather on the steps of Parliament house to do just that, venting frustrations is cathartic. However, art museums will now be looking at more security, thicker protective glass, increased security staff, more camera surveillance and no receptacles or bags allowed on top of the ban on umbrellas courtesy of suffragette protests a century ago. If this requires government funds, then all the protesters have done is to redirect money that might have been spent on climate action [more sand bags to save the 1000 dwellings about to be inundated perhaps], into the restoration industry.
Destroying art achieves nothing, but then again, humankind has destroyed entire civilisations in the search for gold, knocked down all manner of architecture in the name of progress and religion and traded grave goods and artefacts to those seeking the prestige associated with owning them, even if the world knows little or nothing about it. Napoleon’s men inscribed their initials on the pyramids and added to the efforts of Roman soldiers determined to leave their mark on history. None of these actions had the slightest effect on the eradication of existentialism – in fact all of Napoleon’s soldiers died anonymously one way or another and the mighty Roman empire dissolved into the cultural wasteland of the Middle Ages and wasn’t rediscovered until sometime later when centuries of detritus was scraped away by ardent archaeologists with trowels.
I also doubt that prosecuting said art vandals [they were one of the Germanic tribes who sacked Rome by the way – Vandals that is] will do much either as long as the media is intent on turning them into heroes with something to say. The right to free speech may well be enshrined in law in some parts of the world but that doesn’t mean that wilful destruction or desecration of cultural artefacts should be tolerated. After all, the only thing that separates the barbarians from the culturally literate is the Art they leave behind and some artefacts will outlive humankind.