Just Stop Oil Activists Glue Themselves To Hay Wain By Constable

Just Stop Oil climate activists subvert The Hay Wain painting by John Constable and glue themselves to the frame at the National Gallery on the 4th of July 2022, London, United Kingdom. The two activists, Hannah Hunt, 23 a psychology student and Eben Lazarus, 22, a music student covered the Hay Wain painting (a romantic landscape painting from 1821 and a national treasure) with their own nightmare version of the countryside before gluing themselves to the frame and informing the gallery visitors of their fear of the future because of climate change. The Just Stop Oil activists call for the government to end all new oil and gas. "We have covered the Hay Wain with a reimagined version that illustrates the impact of our addiction to fossil fuels on our countryside. The painting is an important part of our heritage, but it is not more important than the 3.5 billion men, women and children already in danger because of the climate crisis." Eben Lazarus says in a Just Stop Oil press release. According to same press release Hannah Hunt says "Im here because our government plans to licence 40 new UK oil and gas projects in the next few years. This makes them complicit in pushing the world towards an unliveable climate and in the death of billions of people in the coming decades. You can forget our green and pleasant land when further oil extraction will lead to widespread crop failures which means we will be fighting for food. Ultimately, new fossil fuels are a death project by our government. So yes there is glue on the frame of this painting but there is blood on the hands of our government." (photo by Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)