Activists throw maple syrup on Emily Carr painting in Vancouver Art Gallery

In another climate activist demonstration, a popular Canadian condiment was thrown onto a decades-old painting by Emily Carr.

On Saturday, activists with the group ‘Stop Fracking Around’ threw maple syrup on Carr’s “Stumps and Sky” painting at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Climate activists throw Maple Syrup at Emily Carr’s “Stumps and Sky” at Vancouver Art Gallery to demand an end to the Coastal ​​​​​​​GasLink Pipeline currently drilling under the sacred Wedzin Kwa river on unceded @Gidimten Wet’suwet’en lands​​​#KillTheDrill #WetsuwetenStrong pic.twitter.com/KiOr0zKkZk

— Stop Fracking Around (@StopFrackingA) November 12, 2022

In a news release from the group, it explains members are calling for an end to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, currently under construction from Dawson Creek to Kitimat on B.C.’s north coast.

In a video by the group, it shows two activists splatter the syrup on the painting, and then proceed to glue their hands to the wall.

In a statement from the Vancouver Art Gallery, it says “staff believes there will be no permanent damage to the artwork.”

“The Vancouver Art Gallery condemns acts of vandalism towards the works of cultural significance in our care, or in any museum. A central part of our mission is to make safer spaces for communication and ideas. As a non-profit charity, we are an institution of memory and care for future generations,” Anthony Kiendl, director and CEO for the gallery said.

“We do support the free expression of ideas, but not at the expense of suppressing the ideas and artistic expressions of others, or otherwise inhibiting people from access to those ideas,” he added.

On November 12, 2022, the Vancouver Art Gallery can confirm that two individuals entered the Gallery and vandalized a work of art in our permanent collection, Emily Carr’s “Stumps and Sky”, c.1934.

More info: https://t.co/pnG88hgHZY pic.twitter.com/OCM2u4NUoE

— Vancouver Art Gallery (@VanArtGallery) November 13, 2022

Carr is a famous Canadian artist, and the oil in the painting dates back to 1934, according to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Carr spent the majority of her life and career in Victoria, and is known as “one of the first artists of national significance to emerge from the West Coast…She became a leading figure in Canadian modern art in the twentieth century,” the Art Canada Institute said on its website.

Don Marshall, a spokesperson for the group, says the protest action at the museum aims to focus public attention on the global climate emergency.

“Why are we protecting these paintings when we are not respecting Indigenous law nor protecting the millions of lives that will be lost due to climate and societal collapse?” the group said in a tweet.

BREAKING: MAPLE SYRUP THROWN ON EMILY CARR PAINTING BY ACTIVISTS

Why are we protecting these paintings when we are not respecting indigenous law nor protecting the millions of lives that will be lost due to climate and societal collapse? pic.twitter.com/qDB0W9AuE3

— Stop Fracking Around (@StopFrackingA) November 12, 2022

Marshall says protesters are targeting works of art around the world because too little is being done to stop the deadly progress of human-caused climate change.

“It’s just a question of trying to get the public and especially our leaders to actually respond to the climate emergency which Canada has declared,” Marshall said. “That’s the logic behind it.”

The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) said on Nov. 3 about the recent demonstrations involving art works that the protests are “misdirected.”

“Attacks on works of art cannot be justified, whether the motivations are political, religious, or cultural. Art crosses boundaries of time and place to underscore the creativity that people everywhere have expressed, and they represent our shared humanity,”

The Vancouver Police Department say that officers were called to the gallery, but no arrests have been made at this time.

Police add officers will conduct a full investigation.