Just Stop Oil Activists Stage ‘You May Find Yourself…’ Art Show

Just Stop Oil (JSO) is full of surprises. After more than a year of targeted museum protests, in which JSO members splashed various substances on the protective glass of a number of the world’s most iconic works of art, now the protesters have changed course to present their own art show, ‘You May Find Yourself…’, taking over an art gallery in Piccadilly Circus from June 1st for an expected run of two weeks. According to the working press release, the civil resistance group plans to occupy the gallery space as part of the exhibit, sparking dialogue among those curious about the people who have perpetrated the most daring acts in 21st century museum history.

Artworks that Just Stop Oil targeted in the UK include Horatio McCulloch’s My Heart’s in the Highlands, Vincent van Gogh’s Peach Trees in Blossom, J. M. W. Turner’s Thomson’s Aeolian Harp, John Constable’s The Hay Wain, Giampietrino’s The Last Supper, and arguably most notably, the viral incident with Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh.

Further art-related actions have occurred in solidarity in Vienna and Washington, DC among other incidents across Europe. Notably, the Leopold Museum, the seat of an attack against Death and Life by Gustav Klimt, staged a climate-focused exhibition a few short months after the museum’s director discussed the incident with activist Florian Hensel.

Now, the Koppel X art gallery at 48 Regent Street will also serve as JSO’s office, and is the Koppel Project’s tenth location across London. The organization was established in 2016, with programming intended to support “thoughtful exhibitions that provoke dialogue and generate diversity in the art world”.

JSO, founded in 2022, did not confirm the names of the protesters who would be in attendance apart from London-based Anna Holland. Phoebe Plummer may still be on house arrest.

The selection of contemporary artworks marketed to be on site alongside the individuals is markedly blue-chip. On the roster is work by Ron Arad, the British-Israeli designer whose 2008 structural marvel Cage Sans Frontières (Cage Without Borders) also features inside the Singapore Freeport, a secretive warehouse beside the airport where art is housed in a special tax-free zone for ultra-rich collectors (sold to Chinese billionaire Jihan Wu in September 2022). Others include Gavin Turk, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Andrei Molodkin and Jamie Reid, all of whom demonstrate support of JSO’s demand for Britain to stop all new fossil fuel licenses.

The exhibition title is taken from a lyric in the song ‘Once in a Lifetime’ from the 1980 album Remain in the Light. The song addresses a sense of dysphoria and apathy around wealth and commercialism in the Western world, with the refrain “same as it ever was” reminding viewers how little has changed in more than 40 years.

“This is where we find ourselves, living at a crisis point that will birth a new age,” the release states. “This is an intervention. And this is just the beginning.”

Admission is free, and will run in tandem with a digital art auction “containing hundreds of pieces” over the remaining two weeks.

Alongside JSO and the Koppel Project are organizations The Auction Collective, the Vivienne Foundation, and FILET space, The Auction Collective, and the Vivienne Foundation.

In a press statement, Brenna Horrox from FILET space “This is an important intervention to show the art community stands with climate activists in the fight against further environmental exploitation and vice versa that climate activists value the art and artists now and want this to exist into the future.”