In a dramatic fusion of art and activism, Greenpeace activists have scaled a Shell-operated gas rig in the North Sea, unfurling a 1,000-square-foot canvas and drenching it in a blood-red liquid as part of a work conceived by British artist Anish Kapoor.
Greenpeace described the intervention as the first artwork ever installed on an active offshore gas platform. A seven-person crew aboard the organization’s Arctic Sunrise vessel sailed nearly 50 miles off England’s east coast to carry out the action. Kapoor, who has long been outspoken about fossil fuel sponsorships in the arts—including urging London’s National Portrait Gallery to cut ties with BP, a step the museum took in 2022—developed the project with Greenpeace in recognition of what he called the group’s enduring commitment to “disrupt, disagree, and disobey.”
Titled Butchered (2025), the work transforms the stark industrial backdrop into a visceral scene: activists attached the massive canvas to the rig and used a high-pressure hose to spray it with a deep crimson mixture of seawater, beetroot, and non-toxic dye. The resulting image, Kapoor explained, is a “visual scream” symbolizing the catastrophic human and environmental toll of the fossil fuel industry.
This marks the second attempt to realize the project, after weather conditions thwarted a first effort last year. This time, the activists waited for favorable conditions before approaching the site—one of 30 oil and gas platforms Shell operates in the North Sea.
Greenpeace emphasized the urgency of the action, noting it coincided with the U.K.’s fourth heatwave of the summer, which has triggered droughts, devastated crops, and fueled record-breaking wildfires. Meanwhile, Shell reported more than $15 billion in profits in 2024 and continues to advance hundreds of new fossil fuel projects worldwide.
“I wanted to make something visual, physical, visceral,” Kapoor said. “A work that embodies the calamitous cost of the climate crisis, borne most brutally by the world’s most marginalized communities.”
