Greenpeace activists installed BUTCHERED, a new work by Anish Kapoor, on a Shell platform in the North Sea.
The work, specifically conceived for the action and installed on Wednesday, consists of a 12 x 8 m canvas onto which the activists pumped 1,000 litres of red liquid made of seawater and natural dyes to give the impression of blood.
BUTCHERED aims to call attention to the harmful extractive practices of the fossil fuel industry.
‘The carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels is invisible, but we are witnessing the devastation that its extraction wreaks on our world. What still remains largely hidden is the responsibility oil giants like Shell bear for causing this destruction and profiting from worldwide suffering’, said Anish Kapoor in a statement. ‘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 marginalised communities across the globe.’
