Episode 8: Just Stop Bad Food Fights
Welcome to The Gallery Date, a weekly date with Jenn Singer to chat about art and life and perhaps the art of life, all in bite sized, not-at-all fancy, but definitely savory episode nuggets!
This week Jenn gets on her (eco-friendly) soapbox to talk through the recent Just Stop Oil protest involving Van Gogh and tomato soup at the National Gallery in London and what it brought up for her as a supporter of both Art and the Earth. She also spills the milk, if you will, on her thoughts about the simultaneous anti-dairy protests by Animal Rebellion vegans, which she is surprisingly passionate about. Her message is clear: just stop these bad food fights, but don't stop fighting.
In the spirit of activism and art, Jenn Singer Gallery is excited to invite you to an exclusive online exhibition of Tidal, new paintings by American abstract artist Anne Austin Pearce. When describing her new series, the artist states:
“Tidal was made as a love letter to the sea. The oceans and tidepools remain new and spectacular to me, this vastness of liquid movement. There are worlds within worlds we don’t yet understand. When the tide is out, we get to see, ever so briefly, plants and creatures so extraordinarily beautiful, vulnerable, and fragile it boggles the mind. This ocean space and movement I consider a metaphor for what we must do and be, how we must preserve the ability to continuously open space for empathy and continue to drive efforts to protect our Earth.”
Join our preview list for early access and first dibs on the new work via the link in the show notes or you can email info@jennsingergallery.com.
Links:
New York Times
The Guardian
Bloomberg News
NPR - Instagram
Anne Austin Pearce at Jenn Singer Gallery
Stay tuned for the very first Gallery Date interview coming up at the end of October! Jenn sits down with Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason of AphroChic to discuss their newest book AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home, published by Clarkson Potter, dropping on November 15, 2022.
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to The Gallery Date. I'm Jenn Singer founder of Jenn Singer Gallery. Thanks for joining me for our weekly date to chat about art and life and perhaps the art of life all in bite-sized not at all fancy, but definitely savory episode nuggets. Let's mingle my friends.
Don't forget to press record, Jenn.
Hey there! Thanks so much for joining me today for our Gallery Date. On today's show, I'm going to get up on my (eco-friendly) soapbox in an effort to talk through and try to make sense of the recent and super crazy art world news, which was the attack on an historic work of art as a form of protest. So that's going to be the show today because I need to talk it through and wrap my head around why this is happening.
Okay. So in case you've been completely tuned out, which good for you, I'm so jealous...On the 14th of October, two protesters from Just Stop Oil entered the National Gallery in London and threw a can of tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting, a 134 year old painting.
This was what they shouted before they glued their hands to the wall near the painting quote. What is worth more, art or life? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?
So their spokeswoman, Mel Carrington, for just stop oil said in a telephone interview with the New York Times that the group's intention had been to generate publicity and to create debate around the climate crisis and the actions needed to stop it. She says "Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers had nothing to do with climate change. It was simply an iconic painting by an iconic painter and an attack on it would generate headlines. But the choice of soup was more symbolic," she says, "in Britain many households are struggling to pay Fuel and food bills because of soaring inflation and some cannot even afford to heat up a can of soup. The government should be helping Ordinary People deal with the cost of living crisis rather than enabling fossil fuel extraction," she added.
So, I don't know if you remember this, but back in July climate activists
protested carbon and gas by gluing their hands to Botticelli's Primavera painting at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Again, no damage was caused to the 540 year old painting, and the protesters message was this: quote "Is it possible to see a spring as beautiful as this today? Fires, food crises and drought make it increasingly difficult. We decided to use art to sound an alarm call. We are heading towards social and eco-climate collapse."
So according to The Guardian this group said that they had consulted with art restoration experts to find a way to glue themselves to the painting without damaging it. They say quote "in the same way that we defend our artistic heritage,we should be dedicated to the care and protection of the planet that we share with the rest of the world". This was from a statement on their website. So this has me irritated, like really irritated. I've been thinking about it a lot and actually like arguing with myself, mainly because one, I want to support them and I really do care about this planet and protecting it and two, like, can they just stop f'ing with art, please?
Now, as someone who deeply cares about Art and the Earth, I saw what looked like the attempted destruction of these priceless paintings, the ones we study in art history and travel across the globe to see in person, if we're lucky enough, and it was a real punch in the gut. Like, I felt physically ill.
Of course, there was glass protecting these irreplaceable works of art, but that's not the first thing you think of. It's definitely not the first thing I thought of. You know, I felt a surge of anger when I saw this happening. Why attempt to destroy art by, by the way, by a notoriously impoverished a mentally unstable artist who would probably be in total support of their cause, you know, in order to save the planet? But why throw a can of acidic tomato soup inside a free public institution that preserves cultural relics for the world to see and at
the same time yell about Britain's not having enough money for food while wasting food?
I've been so angry about this because it feels like they're picking on the wrong kid. It feels unjust. As I scroll through the comments on social media, I feel like their very loud message, which was successfully delivered in that it went viral immediately, was completely lost.
How could anyone support this kind of extremism? That's what it felt like to me it like, extremism. You know, it's the same feeling I had in 2019 when Extinction Rebellion activists blocked public transportation during rush hour. It was a move the organization has since admitted was a massive mistake. But again, I was like why public transportation? Commuting via public transport is a great way to help the climate and actually, you know, helping to reduce oil consumption and pollution. There were people on the platforms actually shouting that they needed to get to work too, that they had to feed their kids too. So it totally work worked against them and the message was completely lost.
So I 100% believe activism and protest is important in order to demand change or at least spark critical conversation and debate, which this is definitely done. I 100% believe that we need to make dramatic changes to how we're living in this world in order to stop its destruction and start healing it. I 100% believe that the crazier the stunt, the bigger the chance, it'll have to go viral and get the message out. I get it. I believe that these two particular protests were well thought out enough that they knew they weren't going to actually harm the targeted artworks. But this behavior sets a dangerous precedent that opens up the risk of copycat attacks, which could be less well thought out or not thought out at all. The art world has suffered many attacks by extremists throughout history, so why stoke these fires?
You know words that I mentioned earlier in describing the attacks on these artworks are interchangeable with the words that are used to describe the climate crisis and the very message that these protesters are trying to send "priceless" and "irreplaceable". Those words can both describe these artworks and the Earth. I get it. The metaphor is not lost on me. But what is lost on me is why they chose this way to deliver a message, which many have already misinterpreted as purely an attack on art.
But that wasn't their message. As the spokeswoman from just stop oil stated, "Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers had nothing to do with climate change." She said "it was simply an iconic painting by an iconic painter and an attack on it would generate headlines". So they did it for the headlines, full stop.
If they really just want to generate headlines and tie it to something with actual meaning, then choose a different target. Historic and important paintings in easy to access (thank goodness) public institutions are too easy a target and it's a cheap headline grab. The oil companies aren't going to be moved by tomato soup on Van Gogh, you know, the government and the biggest contributors to pollution don't actually care about young people's hands being glued to a Caravaggio. You know, so perhaps find out what they do care about. These activists need to be more strategic and find a better way to get their message out there because it seems these days that's easier than ever. So they can clearly make it happen without being counterproductive.
I'm glad they are fighting for climate change, keep fighting for our planet, it is so important. And I want your message during your protest to be effective. But in the meantime, please just stop.
Just stop the attacks on Art.
And now, a word from our sponsor.
In the spirit of activism and art, Jenn Singer Gallery is excited to invite you to an exclusive online exhibition of TIDAL, new paintings by American abstract artist Anne Austin Pearce. When describing her new works, the artist states quote "TIDAL was made as a love letter to the Sea. The oceans and tide pools remain new and spectacular to me, this vastness of liquid movement. There are worlds within worlds we don't yet understand. When the tide is out we get to see ever so briefly plants and creatures so extraordinarily beautiful, vulnerable and fragile it boggles the mind. This ocean space and movement I consider a metaphor for what we must do and be how we must preserve the ability to continuously open space for empathy and continue to drive efforts to protect our Earth".
Join our preview list for early access and first dibs on the new paintings via the link in the show notes or you can email info@jennsingergallery.com.
Okay, can we talk about milk now?
I love milk. I get stressed out in my house when there is not enough milk. I don't
like drink by the glassful or anything but I need milk in my tea and coffee, so I'm always like ok the milkman's not delivering until Thursday, because we have a milkman who delivers milk to our door because we live in the country in the UK and that's a brilliant scheme that they have. Like, if I know we're gonna run out of milk, I start getting sweaty and panicked.
And I have been vegan in my life. I went without dairy for a long time when I had a like blip of lactose intolerance in my early 20s, I don't know what happened, but I grew out of it. But I love milk and I love cheese and I love Dairy. I love it. And I understand the argument about it not being as eco-friendly. And meat not being eco-friendly. I get it. But I've tried being vegan. It doesn't agree with my life, in my body. I need the meat. It's just a thing. I can get hate mail about this.
I've really tried. It's not for me.
So anyway, I have been hearing about these protests in London again. And I thought it was appropriate to mention these given the protests we've been discussing on the show.
And so I also want people to stop pouring milk out onto the floor of groceries. Why? Why are we doing this? Why are you choosing to get the vegan message out there by wasting resources that have already been made, packaged and delivered. You're wasting good milk that people will buy and that has already been taken from the cows. Like I don't understand this logic. I think it's a poorly delivered message and a poorly delivered protest.
There are other ways, again, to get messages out there. Why do we have to pour milk all over the floor of Waitrose, or wherever, Fortnum and Mason, to protest dairy products? Like it doesn't make sense to waste resources.
Like, I'm getting sweaty about the milk. Don't waste the milk. It's already been produced and delivered. I don't even know what you could do. I don't know what the solution is. But there are workers who have to clean up after your, like, kind of toddler-like protest.
I have a two year old, if he is in a fit, and you know, is feeling like he's protesting against mummy, you know, he might look me dead in the eye and pour some milk out just to spite me. I get it. It's a protest. It's not very successful, I can tell you that. He doesn't get what he wants after that. So I highly recommend finding another way to deliver this message. Find another way to protest that actually gets people behind you and in support of your vegan life. I am loving it. That's great. Be vegan. I fully support that. I think it's great.
I can't be vegan. You can be vegan. Let's all get along. But please stop pouring
the milk on the floor. It's not working.
Okay. All right, that's it. That's the show.
Okay. Finally, I'd like to end the show today with a very exciting announcement. My very first interview for the podcast has been recorded and we are in editing now, but I am so excited about this. I had the chance to sit down with Jeanine Hayes and Brian Mason of AphroChic to discuss their new book titled AphroChic which drops next month. I cannot wait to share this interview with you all. So stay tuned for it coming up later this month.
Okay, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for tuning into The Gallery Date. Join me for our date every Wednesday for a bite-sized episode on TheGalleryDate.com, Please subscribe, follow rate and review The Gallery Date on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks again for joining me and I'll see you soon...
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