"Human Cost" Oily Protest at the Tate Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Apr 20 2011

Location: 

Great Britain

On the one-year anniversary of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, artist-activists at Liberate Tate staged a guerrilla performance in the Tate Britain galleries to highlight the museum's ties to BP. The peformance: "A naked member of the group has had an oil-like substance [charcoal and sunflower oil] poured over him by silent figures dressed in black and wearing veils, and is now lying in a fetal position on the floor in the middle of the exhibition Single Form."

Sandra Paige, a participant in the performance, said:
“It’s astonishing that Nick Serota and other Tate executives can be so blind to the horrific social and environmental impacts that BP is responsible for around the world. From the destruction of fisherfolks’ livelihoods in the Gulf of Mexico, to the indigenous communities in Canada fearing for their very survival – the human cost of BP’s oil extraction is staggering.”

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