Anish Kapoor and Climate Activists Take Over Gas Rig with “BUTCHERED”
Created from 1,000 liters of fake blood, the piece represents the “collective grief and pain at what has been lost, but also a cry for reparation.”
Summary
- Climate activists from Greenpeace installed Anish Kapoor’s “BUTCHERED” on a Shell gas rig in the North Sea
- The piece references the violence, loss and destruction wrought on by titanic oil and gas extraction initiatives and corporations
Activists from the climate organization Greenpeace have unveiled a new artwork by Anish Kapoor on a Shell gas platform in the North Sea. Titled “BUTCHERED,” the artwork arrives as the UK records its fourth heatwave of the summer, and in the words of Kapoor, is “a reference to the destruction – the bleeding – of our globe of our state, of being.”
On the morning of August 13, seven Greenpeace members scaled Shell’s Skiff platform, located 45 nautical miles off the coast of Norfolk before mounting a 12-by-8 meter canvas to the side of the rig. The activists then used a high-pressure hose to pump 1,000 liters of “blood” – a mixture made from seawater, beetroot powder and food-based dye – onto its surface. According to The Guardian, “BUTCHERED” is believed to be the first fine artwork displayed on an active gas extraction platform.
In a recent statement, the group wrote that the piece brings light to the “wound inflicted on both humanity and the Earth by the fossil fuel industry,” evoking the “collective grief and pain at what has been lost, but also a cry for reparation.”
“I wanted to make something visual, physical, visceral to reflect the butchery they are inflicting on our planet,” Kapoor expressed, “a visual scream that gives voice to the calamitous cost of the climate crisis, often on the most marginalized communities across the globe.”
“BUTCHERED is an action that happens at the place where this violation starts – a gas platform in the middle of the sea,” he continued. “[It] attempts to bring home the horror, giving voice to the moral and physical destruction caused by ruthless profiteers.”
This isn’t the first time the artist stepped up to face Big Gas. In 2019, Kapoor joined a league of 78 British artists – among them Sarah Lucas and Antony Gormley – in calling for London’s National Portrait Gallery to sever ties with BP in lieu of their 30-year sponsorship.
