The Just Stop Oil protesters shocked people when they threw tomato soup at Van Gogh paintings. But it’s not clear they succeeded in bringing attention to their cause
Last week two activists from Just Stop Oil who threw tomato soup on a landscape painting by Vincent Van Gogh in the National Gallery and then glued themselves to the wall, symbolizing, um, well, ah… I’m really not quite sure.
The head-scratching disconnect between the activists’ tactics and the message they were trying to convey – linking oil to the climate crisis, in case you hadn’t figured it out – has been widely discussed, and ridiculed, in the media.
Stephen Duncombe, a lifelong activist, is professor of media and culture at New York University and co-founder of the Center for Artistic Activism, a non-profit organization that trains artists and activists around the world be become more affective and effective. His forthcoming book Æffect is on assessing the impact of arts and activism.
