Activists Pour Porridge and Spray Soup on Queen Victoria Sculptures in Glasgow to Protest Cost of Living Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Mar 3 2024

Location: 

Glasgow

Activists poured porridge and jam on a marble bust of Queen Victoria and sprayed fire extinguishers filled with soup onto a large bronze statue of the monarch during two recent protests in Glasgow, Scotland.

The group, called This Is Rigged, claimed responsibility for the two protests, which took place inside the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum at noon on March 3 and at George Square at 10:45 am local time on March 4.

During the protest at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, one of the activists spray-painted the word “cunt” in pink on the plinth, while the other poured the porridge and jam on Francis John Williamson’s 1888 marble bust of Queen Victoria. “We refuse to be dragged back to the Victorian era,” a protestor said. “Diseases of starvation including scurvy and rickets are on the rise.”

External sources: 

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/activists-protest-porridge-spray-soup-quee…
Posted by JFerragamo on Mar 4 2024

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.
Does nothing (at all)Doesn't really have an impact, beyond possibly expressing the artist-activist's dissatisfaction with the world.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear long-term goal. Long-term goals tend to be things like: end racism; end homophobia; make the sun stand still in the sky. A campaign with a long-term goal also needs to have some kind of theory of change.
This activist effort would be considered an action in the name of a long-term goal. These activists are looking to draw attention to societal inequities in order to advocate for a more equitable distraction of wealth.

Notes

I think this project is effective in the sense that it draws attention to an important issue and the work of a specific activist group, however, it does not seem to have steps or a plan in place post-stunt.