#also they were assholes when the Gardner Museum wouldn't let them put posters about climate change in the empty frames | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

marzipanandminutiae · 6 months ago

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the other reason the "vandalize art" method of protest bugs me- which it wouldn't in isolation because it's never something that causes actual damage; the flour was removable -is that the commentary from the group is ALWAYS something like "well, why care about that when climate change exists?! how DARE you give a shit about art when Bad Things are happening!!!"

and like. bad things are ALWAYS happening. you can care about more than one thing! loving art and beauty and history are basic parts of the human experience- part of what we're fighting to save from climate change. part of what makes life worth protecting

shaming people for enjoying things is always a No from me

(also, is it just me, or do they never vandalize modern art? I can think of plenty non-oil-painting or ancient structure pieces that represent oodles of greed, corruption, vanity, etc. but happen to have been created after 1920. Boston's City Hall hurt way more people than the Mona Lisa ever did, seeing as a bunch of 19th-century working-class commercial and residential buildings were bulldozed to construct a huge Brutalist space-hog)

#also they were assholes when the Gardner Museum wouldn't let them put posters about climate change in the empty frames #from the paintings stolen in 1990 #once again it was some bullshit "if you care about art heists when climate change fuck you' messaging and the frames are art themselves #old and fragile #and they were permitted to protest outside the museum without incident #but still whined that their First Amendment rights were being infringed upon #dude. you don't have the legal right to jeopardize fragile and beautiful picture frames #that's not in the constitution #even here in Boston where most people agree with the Climate Action Now message folks were irritated with them

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