Why We Need Art on a Dying Planet
The recent attacks on art seem ignore the true goals of the climate movement and what art offers along the way to achieving them.
Climate activists have tossed tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, plastered mashed potatoes over Monet’s Grainstacks, and glued one of their own heads to Vemeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. I understand the last the least. But I get what they’re after. Civil disobedience and nonviolent protest have long been used to pressure the government and the public into action. Many may criticize the art-targeting version of this tactic, but no one can say it hasn’t been effective at making headlines at the very least.
What isn’t clear is how effective they’ve been at garnering systemic change. It’s not even clear what these activists are after. When the pieces are attacked, all we seem to hear is the refrain, “there’s no art on a dead planet.”
To which I reply, “Obviously.” On a dead planet, there’s nothing. Moreover, their cliched statement misses the very real fact that on a dying planet, art still has value. Art can save lives. Art can move hearts, change minds, and inspire actions. Art, properly wielded, is one of the most powerful tools the movement has at its disposal to build a movement. Yet, the brave1 Just Stop Oil demonstrators have taken aim at art because, it seems, their primary goal is publicity.
In times like these, I am reminded of a little-known essay by Julius Lester, “On Becoming Revolutionary,” from his book Revolutionary Notes. Written in response to the antiwar movement’s obsession with mass marches that had no discernible goal behind them aside from turning out as many bodies as possible, Julius Lester says, “Perhaps it has never occurred to any of us that our goal, in fact, is to win, and everything that does not point toward that winning is irrelevant and immaterial.”
This feels like he’s speaking directly to our movement in this moment. Because we certainly seem to have forgotten this, if we ever knew. Our goal is not to make headlines. Our goal is not to be the most morally pure movement. Our goal is not to get the most likes, comments, retweets, and follows. Our goal is to win. And in this case, winning means reweaving the very fabric of society; reimagining and reinventing nearly every aspect of our lives is the only way to address the climate crisis.
We need a new food system. We need new transportation systems. We need a new definition of prosperity and the pursuit of happiness. We need new relationships between humanity and the rest of the world. Building all that newness, that’s what winning means. But we forget.
Many bring up, in response to the art gallery food fights, that it takes 3.5% of people engaged in a movement for it to trigger massive social change. But they seem to lose sight of the fact that these people must be organized to enact meaningful work that does more than attract attention and leave the foundation of unjust systems unthreatened. Our movement must challenge the very basis of current systems and seek to establish a new one; the actions we choose must connect to one or both of those aims.
For instance, the lunch counter sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement were extraordinarily effective because they demonstrated against the very thing they sought to change: Segregation. Of course, with the fossil fuel-based economy being the enemy and the foundation of everything in our society, there isn’t as often so clear and prescient a target as a segregated restaurant, bus, or other public service. There are, however, the pipelines, powerplants, and big banks which activists have targeted for years. These Blockadia protests have been particularly powerful. But they often make fewer headlines and require more effort than dumping a can of cold food on a painting; however, they are also less divisive. It’s hard to deride someone whose goal is clean air and clean water for themselves, their children, and their community.
That said, Blockadia opposes the old without building the new. That’s the next frontier the movement must mount if we wish to win, and though there was nothing easy about opposing fossil fuel projects, the work to build the new world in a just and equitable way will be even harder. Thankfully, many are already laying the foundation with solar cooperatives, urban agriculture, and other forms of collective action that make space for new lifeways modeled on Indigenous ideas.
That said, this small-scale, decentralized work of building a just, regenerative world community by community will likely never make headlines that “break the Internet,” but it’s nonetheless the work that will have the greatest impact, an impact that outlasts any memory of soup hurled at a hundred-year-old painting adored by the world. There is one important question to ask and answer here: If it never gains online attention, how can this work grow and expand?
Much of the growth will occur through direct connections and person-to-person interactions within the communities where groups seek to build these transformative projects. But the biggest challenge the movement will face on this new frontier is the inherent skepticism of the public. The people won’t believe in something new until they see it and experience it. There are certainly visionaries who chase something and make real what others can’t yet imagine. But there are many more who will question anything they have no reason to believe in. But if we can give them even just an emotional reason to believe, their opposition would lessen.
This is an area where art shines brightest. There may be no art on a dead planet, but art can help heal a dying one. Art can provide a vision the masses can latch on to and hold as they strive to create the new. Art can provide the renewable energy people in the movement need to keep going and keep fighting to construct from the ground up what we can. Art can guide us down the road ahead and inspire us to push forward when the road gets dark and our feet grow heavy. Art can help us win.
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Make no mistake, whether or not you or I fully agree with the actions, it takes tremendous courage to commit an act of civil disobedience and knowingly face jail time to stand for what you believe in, just ask veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.