van gogh, potato soup + climate activism

Babes and bots, 

Happy Almost Halloween! It's been spooky season for a while now. One of my housemates put caution tape all over our door and, because I live in public, everyone has been asking me what it's all about. Are you okay? Should you be in there? Is that a crime scene? My housemate was overjoyed to hear this feedback. 

Last night my partner and I went to a reading and then a Halloween party. They were both groovy. We dressed as climbers, my first ever couples costume, and I successfully stayed under my 4-drink maximum, a rule I enacted after one very wild night of crawling in bird pants during a staff auction. My boss, and boss's boss, and boss's boss's boss were all there to witness this particular brand of drunk. 

updates

Next door the ramen restaurant staff are listening to Mos Def. My partner's neighbors were having loud sex at 5:42am this morning. My house is very hostile and painful. Tomorrow I'm driving to Pikes Peak with some friends. I made banana bread today. I decided to stop eating Cheetos every week (because I'm a vegan and PepsiCo/Frito-Lay is a bad company). I watched an intense movie on Netflix called Girl about a trans ballerina who eventually chops off her penis with a pair of scissors. It's in German and French. I still don't know how I feel about it. 

controversial opinion

less chocolate chips in cookies is better. mic drop. 

climate activism and art 

Would I be me if I didn't discuss the wild climate activism going on in Europe right now? No, I wouldn't. This shit is cray cray on god. 



And if you want to read more about it, there's this article from the Washington Post. Some activists are asking museums to stop taking money from Big Oil. One of the biggest activist groups behind the protests is Just Stop Oil. While they claim the paintings are behind glass and remain unharmed, the shock of it all remains the same. 

While I'm not entirely sure if these activists are reaching their purpose and I don't know what negotiations are underway as museums (maybe) divest from fossil fuels, I'll be interested to see what effects their tactics have. I must admit that I'm inspired by their bravery and sheer dedication. I saw these videos and wondered if I should be more forcefully involved in climate justice. I also wonder what kinds of climate activism are productive. Is it all productive? So long as it is genuine, well-researched, decolonial, and community-focused I suppose. But does art vandalism meet these standards? I don't know. Maybe sometimes. 

My best friend recently sent me a postcard of Rokeby Venus by Diego Velazquez. They noted that the painting had once been slashed by a suffragette and its repairs were still visible. 



The painting's slasher was a woman named Mary Richardson who, over 100 years ago, was so angered by the way women's bodies were portrayed (i.e. the temporary/ephemeral nature of female beauty, a Eurocentric standard built on the problematic infantilization of white women) that she took a meat cleaver to the work. I can't say for sure whether or not concepts like Eurocentric beauty standards or white supremacy entered her mind, but I can assure you that she was as determined as the Just Stop Oil activists to demand people's attention. She certainly succeeded, in that sense at least. 

I'm not sure what to think about the recent art vandalism. I can't help but think there are more productive ways to get places like the National Gallery to stop investing in fossil fuels, or that these activists might have more of an impact if they brought their cans of soup and glue to BP or Chevron or Blackrock instead. Or if they used their voices to decenter Europe in climate discourse. Or if they raised money to support community-based climate activism? 

Something about potato soup on van Gogh feels illogical. Is that just me? 

That's all for now folks. Thanks for taking a bite out of the sandwich with me! 
xoxo
BLT

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