Climate activists target Emily Carr painting with maple syrup at Vancouver Art Gallery | Globalnews.ca

Two climate activists targeted a painting by Emily Carr at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday.

In a social media post by the Stop Fracking Around account on Twitter, a video shows two activists pouring an unknown liquid, which the tweet said is maple syrup, over a painting.

The two activists then apparently glued themselves to the wall under the painting.

In the video posted, one of the activists claims the incident is a protest against the Coastal GasLink pipeline and is calling for the pipeline’s construction to end.

“We’ll stop messing around. We are here to raise our voices and we will not remain silent,” said one of the activists.

“We are demanding that the government halt construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, the government cancel fossil fuel infrastructure, and the government cancel the Trans Mountain Pipeline.”

The Vancouver Art Gallery has confirmed that two people were able to destroy Emily Carrs stumps and sky Painting.

“The Vancouver Art Gallery condemns acts of vandalism of works of cultural significance in our custody or in other museums,” said Anthony Kiendle, CEO and director of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

“A central part of our mission is to create safer spaces for communication and ideas. As a non-profit charity, we are an institution of remembrance and care for future generations. We support the free expression of ideas, but not at the expense of suppressing the ideas and artistic expression of others or otherwise impeding access to those ideas.”

Gallery staff assume there will be no permanent damage to the artwork.

Climate protests against famous paintings have been in the news lately, as two women have been charged with criminal damage after they vandalized a painting in London last month.

In another anti-food protest, climate activists threw mashed potatoes at a $110.7 million painting by Claude Monet in a German museum in late October.

These protests have met serious opposition online, with even climate-conscious community members struggling with art being targeted.

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Climate protesters throw mashed potatoes at Monet paintings in Germany

A spokesman for Stop Fracking Around said they understand the frustrations and that they feel this is one of their only channels that can be heard.

“This is a desperate move,” said Don Marshall, a spokesman for Stop Fracking Around.

“This is the only way (activists) have found to actually make a difference. Those who say, “Please protest in some other way,” please do so.

“If they think you can stand on the side of the road holding banners and that’s going to have an impact on the government… try it. We did and it didn’t work.”

Marshall said the two activists have been detached from the wall, but details are limited at this time.

Vancouver police have also confirmed that two women entered the art gallery and applied maple syrup to a painting.

The two were not arrested, but police said officers thought they knew who they were and were conducting an investigation.

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