"Human Cost" - Anniversary of BP Gulf Oil Spill

I came across this YouTube video about a news story out of London. I think it is an interesting story and video, but I particularly like the irony at the end of the story.

ARTISTS STAGE OILY PROTEST AT FAMOUS TATE MUSEUM

From Andrew Price at GOOD Magazine

Yesterday London's stately Tate Britain, the oldest gallery in London's network of Tate museums, got an unexpected new installation. On the anniversary of the BP oil spill, a group of artist-activists removed a bench in one of the museum's large galleries, and poured "oil" (actually a mixture of charcoal and sunflower oil) over a naked co-conspirator who lay on the floor.

Why? The unsanctioned performance piece, called "Human Cost," was a protest by the group Liberate Tate, which has been trying to get the Tate Modern to end its relationship with BP—a relationship which basically consists of BP buying good publicity by giving the museum money and then putting its logo everywhere. As Terry Taylor, a member of Liberate Tate, said, "Oil companies like BP are responsible for environmental and social controversy all over the world, and we can’t let their sponsorship of institutions like Tate detract from that fact."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-vGbsBLKM

Here's the irony, though: Liberate Tate was actually founded during a 2010 workshop on art and activism sponsored by the Tate. During the workshop, the group says, the Tate tried to prevent participants from doing anything that would embarrass the museum's sponsors. Suffice it to say, that kind of backfired.