Art Not Oil: Call for Art

In the July 2004 edition of my Art For A Change newsletter I wrote an article titled, Oily Portraits. The piece was about London’s National Portrait Gallery being funded by British Petroleum (BP), and more specifically - how artists organized a protest against big oil’s involvement in the art world. At the Gallery’s award ceremony for the best portrait painter of ’04, elite art lovers were met by a picket line of artists, while other artists actually chained themselves to the door of the gallery, effectively barring entrance to the award ceremony for a time. The protestors handed out leaflets that read in part “It's time to strip away the greenwash; in fact it's time to save the whole planet from these robber barons with their bloody oil wars, climate chaos and massive pay hikes. We know there are better worlds out there, and they don't include profit or fossil fuels (or an art market, for that matter).” While the corporate war for oil continues, and petroleum companies go on wrecking havoc upon the environment… so to do artists persist in envisioning a different world. The artists of London’s Art Not Oil, recently e-mailed me details on their upcoming activities planned for this year:

“Art Not Oil is an annual event aimed at encouraging artists to create work that explores the damage that companies like BP are doing to the planet, and the role art can play in counteracting that damage. It is designed in part to paint a truer portrait of an oil company than the caring image manufactured by the BP Portrait Award, a search for the year's 'best' portrait which also happens to divert public attention from BP's actual activities. Climate chaos is set to have a catastrophic effect on all of us, while hitting the poorest hardest. Oil is a curse that also fuels war, poverty and environmental destruction. Yet the companies most responsible are profiting handsomely, and they are still welcome it seems in many of our most prestigious public galleries and museums. Art Not Oil 2005 will include paintings, photos, sculpture and other creations that address issues like climate chaos, corporate greenwash and the suicidal madness that proclaims 'profit is king' and 'money can solve any problem'. We also warmly welcome work dealing with the cancerous impact of the oil industry on the planet, and of course work that dares to imagine what solutions to these serious but not insoluble problems might look like.

Art Not Oil 2005 will begin as a virtual gallery, progressing to a physical space at the Institute for Autonomy in London, from June 9th to the 18th. We will also be holding an event outside the National Portrait Gallery on the evening of the Portrait Award presentation ceremony on Monday 13th June. Then Art Not Oil 2005 will move - we hope, to Scotland, since the G8 will be there in July, as will many thousands of protesters calling for justice, freedom and a fossil fuel-free future. We also plan for the exhibition to be present in Sunderland and Edinburgh in autumn/winter 2005/6, since the BP Portrait Award exhibition will tour to these cities."

For learn more about Art Not Oil, including how to become involved in their exhibitions, visit their website at: www.artnotoil.org.uk