Renowned artist Anish Kapoor and Greenpeace have come together for a powerful art installation in the North Sea. Created on the side of an active offshore gas site, BUTCHERED is a striking commentary on the dire consequences of fossil fuel extraction. Aimed specifically at oil giants, the artwork was installed by expert Greenpeace climbers, who scaled a Shell gas platform off the coast of England to bring Kapoor’s vision to life.
After attaching a 39-foot by 26-foot canvas to the side of the platform, the activists sprayed a substance resembling blood down the canvas, leaving a red trail in the sea. This mixture of seawater, beetroot powder, and non-toxic, food-based pond dye creates a visualization of the wounds felt by humanity due to the fossil fuel industry’s carbon dioxide emissions. Greenpeace points to an increased number of heat waves, droughts, and wildfires as just some of these side effects.
“I wanted to make something visual, physical, visceral to reflect the butchery they are inflicting on our planet: a visual scream that gives voice to the calamitous cost of the climate crisis, often on the most [marginalized] communities across the globe,” shared Kapoor in a statement about the work.
“BUTCHERED is an action that happens at the place where this violation starts—a gas platform in the middle of the sea. BUTCHERED attempts to bring home the horror, giving voice to the moral and physical destruction caused by ruthless profiteers. My work BUTCHERED is also a tribute to the heroic work done in opposition to this destruction, and to the tireless activists who choose to disrupt, disagree, and disobey.”
In a statement about the installation, Greenpeace singles out Shell, stating that the company had earned £54 billion (nearly $73 billion) in the two years following the Ukraine invasion, but paid just a fraction of that in taxes in the United Kingdom. They also point to a recently study that named Shell as one of that main companies that has caused climate damage. That study quantified Shell’s environmental damage of the past 30 years as at least $1.42 trillion.
“While the fossil fuel sector makes billions from climate destruction, ordinary people are left to pick up the rising costs of flood damage, droughts, and wildfires,” said Philip Evans, senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK. “Governments need to start holding oil giants like Shell to account and make them pay for the enormous damage they are causing.”
Renowned artist Anish Kapoor and Greenpeace have come together for a powerful art installation in the North Sea.
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BUTCHERED required Greenpeace climbers to scale an active gas platform off the coast of England.
1,000 liters of a red substance was poured down an enormous canvas to signify the wounds left by the fossil fuel industry.
“I wanted to make something visual, physical, visceral to reflect the butchery they are inflicting on our planet,” shares Kapoor.
Anish Kapoor speaking with Greenpeace activists.
