CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (AP) – Climate protesters in Australia yesterday scrawled graffiti and glued themselves to an Andy Warhol artwork depicting Campbell’s soup cans but didn’t appear to damage the piece because it’s encased in glass.
It was the latest incident in which climate protesters targetted an iconic piece of art without causing permanent damage. A group called Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies posted a video to social media showing two women applying blue graffiti to five of 10 screen prints by Warhol depicting Campbell’s soup cans and then glueing themselves to the work at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
“We’re in a climate emergency,” one of the women shouted.
The group said its members were highlighting the dangers of capitalism by glueing themselves to a work that depicts “consumerism gone mad”.
“While Australians starve, the government pays AUD22,000 a minute to subsidise fossil fuels,” the group wrote on Twitter.
The protest ended quickly with the women being escorted from the building before the glue had time to set. The large artwork is called “Campbell’s Soup I” and was created by Warhol in New York in 1968.
A police spokesperson said officers had responded to an incident involving two people at the gallery but at this point hadn’t made any arrests.
