Shell Wildlife Photographer Exhibition In Aberystwyth Gets Pursued By Shell's Wild Lie
On November 9th, Aberystwyth Arts Centre finished hosting the 2007 Shell Wildlife Photographer exhibition, organised by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife magazine. On November 10th, the Centre began showing the counter-exhibition, 'Shell's Wild Lie', which ran until November 17th: The Arts Centre website
'Shell's Wild Lie', put together as part of London Rising Tide's 'Art Not Oil' campaign, features photographs and illustrations that it considers to be a truer snapshot of the disastrous effects of Shell and the fossil fuel industry as a whole on our planet. It tours the country, and was last seen outside the Natural History Museum on the first weekend of the 2007exhibition, (see report below. One campaigner and one journalist have made official complaints to the Museum as a result of aggressive security that day.)
Shell has a 2 year contract with the NHM, worth £750,000, with 2007-8 being the second of those years. Sam Chase from London Rising Tide said:
'We have been led to believe that the Museum is unlikely to renew such a controversial contract, but we the public need to keep up the pressure on it to steer clear of Shell and Big Oil's tainted cash. In fact, it's time for oil industry sponsorship of arts and culture to become extinct before
it's too late to save some of the countless species whose future is threatened by climate chaos.'
As well as asking people to make their feelings known to the Museum, it is also asking them to contact BBC Wildlife magazine, which boasts noted environmental campaigners and journalists such as Friends of the Earth boss Tony Juniper, Jonathon Porritt, George Monbiot, David Attenborough and John Vidal, on its Advisory Panel.
For more information, contact info@artnotoil.org.uk
LRT, c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES. Tel: 07708 794665
www.shelloiledwildlife.org.uk, www.artnotoil.org.uk,
Check out the Shell's Wild Lie exhibition:
http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/gallery/v/Shell/
NOTES
1.) This text accompanies the exhibition:
IS IT TIME FOR OIL INDUSTRY SPONSORSHIP OF ARTS & CULTURE TO BECOME EXTINCT?
Shell is the third largest oil company in the world. It is also the sponsor of the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife magazine’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. As a response, we have put together Shell’s Wild Lie, which paints what we think is a truer snapshot of the effects of Shell and the fossil fuel industry as a whole on our planet. It
also depicts some of the actions being taken throughout the world to halt Big Oil in its tracks, and perhaps to ‘build a new world in the ruins of the old’.
We think that Shell has no right to pay for its logo to sit alongside a photograph of a family of polar bears struggling to make its way across disintegrating ice floes, or any of the other wonderful, often heartbreaking images that make up NHM’s exhibition. If you agree, please tell NHM boss Michael Dixon directly what you think, (also perhaps not forgetting BP, which is a Museum partner):
(020) 7942 5000; m.dixon@nhm.ac.uk, cc’ing to feedback@nhm.ac.uk,
wildlifeletters@bbcmagazinesbristol.com & us.
Despite attempts to ‘greenwash’ its reputation via blanket advertising and cultural sponsorship, Shell is still heavily implicated in producing ever-greater quantities of the oil and gas that are destabilising our climate to such an alarming degree. Climate change is set to wipe out millions of plant and animal species and to devastate the poorest regions
of the planet.
* Shell’s activities also result in oil spills which are major causes of death and destruction for many varieties of life.
* It is still burning off 'unwanted' gas all across the already massively despoiled Niger Delta.
* Its planned refinery and pipeline project in County Mayo, Ireland, threatens a pristine ecosysystem, not to mention the homes and livelihoods of the inhabitants.
* It is currently constructing a massive development at Sakhalin Island in Russia which is threatening the survival of the Western Pacific Gray Whale. Lastly, Shell is the only company that has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars to open up for oil exploration the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the American Arctic.
For all these reasons, and many many more, Shell should not be sponsoring the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. We call on the Natural History Museum to end its sponsorship deal with Shell. (After all, if the UK government wasn't investing billions in reckless wars for oil, perhaps it could pump more of our wealth into our cultural institutions,
large and small?)
Shell’s Wild Lie was put together by London Rising Tide (LRT), as part of its ongoing Art Not Oil campaign, which stands for ‘creativity, climate justice and an end to oil industry sponsorship of the arts’. Rising Tide is part of a worldwide network of groups taking creative direct action on the root causes of climate chaos. Thanks for taking the time to
take a look…
2.) Songs of freedom at opening of Shell's Wild Lie exhibition, 27.10.07 Photos and more info: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384536.html
Short film: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384607.html
3.) Celebrated photographer Subhankar Banerjee resigns from International
League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) over its support for Shell
Wildlife Photographer exhibition: