London’s famous Tate Britain art gallery was recently rebranded as the ‘BP Walk Through British Art’. But not everyone is happy with the world’s biggest corporate criminal and polluter using art sponsorship to greenwash its image. Yesterday, a group of actor-vists known as the Reclaim Shakespeare Company expressed that opposition in a very dramatic way…

Find out more, and watch a film of the full performance here:

http://bp-or-not-bp.org/news/shakespe…

Follow on Twitter: @ReclaimOurBard
Like on Facebook: www.facebook.com/reclaimshakespearecompa­ny

Get involved with the campaign to kick Big Oil out of our arts and culture: www.artnotoil.org.uk

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A lot of my work takes place with other people, as an artist in residence, visiting lecturer or consultant. I use my own learning to support and facilitate the learning of others. It’s not about me teaching others to do what I do, it’s about recognising the value of your own creative, multi-sensory interaction with the places that you live and work in. I believe in art as a way of knowing the world, which enables us to step across the perceptual void that purely intellectualised ways of knowing leave behind, and which cause us to harm the very systems on which we depend.

Learning through touch, smell, taste and sound, as well as thought, emotion and imagination, brings the whole individual together, and sets them up in dialogue with the more than human world. We need artful ways of knowing and learning in order to experience our connected nature and listen to the world again.’

For more information on James’s work please see www.jamesaldridge-artist.co.uk

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The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
in one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?–

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?

Der Morgen (“Morning”, 1808), oil on canvas by Philipp Otto Runge

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Fifty veiled figures dressed in black carried out a performance art installation entitled ‘Parts Per Million’ throughout a series of rooms in the ‘BP Walk Through British Art’ at Tate Britain during the art gallery’s official re-opening (Saturday 23 November 2013). The piece critiqued the role that Tate is playing in exacerbating climate change by bolstering the public perception of BP through its long-standing sponsorship relationship.

The art at Tate Britain was reordered chronologically this year. The Liberate Tate performance began in the ’1840′ room, when the industrial revolution started to significantly impact emission levels, to the present day room with contemporary art created as carbon dioxide levels reached an all-time high of 400 parts per million (ppm). Leading climate scientists consider 350 ppm to be what must be returned to in this century for earth to be safe for human life for generations to come. In each room the Liberate Tate performers arranged themselves in a different configuration and counted aloud en masse the increase in atmospheric carbon ppm during that time period.

‘Parts Per Million’ is the tenth performance at Tate by Liberate Tate: a group that has become internationally renowned for artworks aimed at ending the relationship of Tate and other cultural institutions with oil companies. One of the performers, Fiona Edwards said:

“Any celebration of British art that prominently bears the BP logo is also endorsing that company’s business model which explicitly involves the destruction of a safe, liveable climate. Tate Britain celebrates with a ‘House Warming Party’, but the presence of BP, one of the companies data shows is most responsible for climate change due to its carbon emissions, makes it more of a ‘Global Warming Party’.”

The national collection of British art housed at Tate Britain – art owned by the public – was rebranded the ‘BP Walk through British Art’ in May: in the very week it was announced carbon dioxide levels had reached 400 ppm. A report published earlier this week estimated that BP was responsible for 2.5% of global historic emissions.

Terri Fletcher of Liberate Tate said: “Tate’s vision statement says that it will ‘demonstrate leadership in response to climate change’. Yet oil companies like BP are actively looking for ways to expand their markets and find new reserves at a time when the world needs to be dramatically reducing the amount of fossil fuels that are being burnt. By actively promoting BP, Tate is positioning itself on the side of the fossil fuel companies that are actually creating dangerous climate change.”

There is growing alarm from artists, Tate members and visitors that Tate is providing support to a corporation creating climate chaos and forcing climate-conscious gallery visitors into an uncomfortable position if they want to enjoy art at Tate (the mission of the art museum is to promote public enjoyment of art). Last year Tate said in a reply to a freedom of information request that it had received more representations raising concerns about BP’s sponsorship than any other issue since the oil company became linked to the gallery in 1990.

Since 1990, when BP first attached itself to Tate and its collection, much has changed: the scientific evidence of climate change due to burning hydrocarbons and the negative social and environmental impacts of oil companies, BP in particular, is now clear and far more widely known amongst the public, including art lovers.

Tate has placed BP sponsorship “under review”. BP has dominated the Tate Members Annual General Meeting (AGM) for years. In 2012 Tate Director Sir Nicholas Serota promised Tate members ethical alternatives would be explored so that Tate trustees had a choice not to continue BP sponsorship. A progress report is due at the 2013 AGM on 6 December.

Liberate Tate

Liberate Tate, Parts Per Million, Tate Britain 2013 Credit: Kristian Buus

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Plus bonus sketches from R. Crumb

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Gardenerism

Happiness Forever

Kar-ee-er

Exterminate all the brutes

Transmigration

Bio: Adam Batchelor is an artist living and working in the U.K. He produces intricate, evocative drawings with a subtle political punch. His work explores the breakdown and conflict between humanity, the man-made and the natural world, and the transition of developing cultures. Batchelor’s work often introduces themes of capitalism, consumerism and global issues, with an interest in Developing cultures, natural history and tribal communities. Recent exhibitions include group shows in Miami and Paris and The Other Art Fair in London. Publications include Adbusters, Lamono, Spindle Magazine, Kult3d, Popshot Magazine, O.K. Periodicals and Beautiful/Decay. Adam’s artwork will soon be featured in a book on drawing by Elephant Magazine.

Artist Statement: Taking influence from social injustices and issues throughout the world, my work explores the breakdown and conflict between humanity, the man-made and the natural world, and looks into the ever rapid transition of developing cultures. I introduce themes of capitalism and consumerism and highlight the threat these have on global issues such as the rights for Indigenous people, the agricultural industry, corruption, health, war and conflict. The work is predominantly created using mechanical and coloured pencils to produce intricate, evocative drawings with a subtle political punch. The drawings are meticulously reproduced from appropriated imagery to appear real. The work addresses the relationships we form to make sense of the world around us and meanders between the real, the socioeconomic, the hyper-real and the fake.

www.adambatchelor.co.uk

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