Art, Performance Art, and Climate Activism

Last week, members of the climate activist group Just Stop Oil glued their hands to the frame of an early 16th-century copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in London’s Royal Academy of Art. They painted “No New Oil” under the painting and said they chose the painting because climate change was causing worldwide food shortages. One activist, a schoolteacher from Leeds, said it was “unfair” to expect young people “to respect our culture when their government is hellbent on destroying their future by licensing new oil and gas projects” and claimed that such protests would continue until the government made “a meaningful statement” about new oil and gas licenses in the United Kingdom.