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Animal rights activists glued a cartoon picture of Wallace, from Wallace and Gromit, over a portrait of King Charles III at a London art gallery yesterday.
This is only the most recent in a string of incidents at UK museums where activists vandalise art to draw attention to their causes.
A group called Animal Rising shared a video of campaigners pasting a picture of Wallace over the king’s head, claiming that the ‘comic redecoration’ was to highlight “widespread violations of animal husbandry rules at farms approved by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”.
A speech bubble next to Wallace’s head read: “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms!”
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The painting is protected by a sheet of plastic and wasn’t damaged, according to the Philip Mould Gallery, where it is on display.
Jonathan Yeo’s enormous painting is the first official painting of Charles since his ascension to the throne in 2022 and was only recently unveiled to much controversy. The image depicts the king in crimson hues, holding his sword hilt in both hands and a butterfly hovering over his right shoulder.
The Animal Rising protestors have been taking their righteous vandalism to several artworks lately, with a group attacking a protective glass case housing an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library only last month. The 800-year-old document, seen as one of the foundations of Western democracy, wasn’t damaged, despite their best effort.
The use of Wallace in this latest incident added a bit of levity to their usual petulant outrage, but plenty of the comments on Animal Rising’s own Instagram post failed to see the humour.
“I’d applaud it, if any of these acts of protest actually made a change.”
“I am a vegan. I am also an artist, and disgusted by acts such as this that encourage putting art in danger of damage. Grow up.”
“I think this is stooping too low and takes away from the point of the message for a few laughs.”
If a vegan artist tells an animal rights protestor with a man bun to grow up, the message they are trying to send does not land well.
If we learned anything from this latest act of rebellion, it’s that the new Wallace and Gromit film, Vengeance Most Fowl, will be hitting our screens later this year. In it, Gromit must save Wallace from a ‘smart gnome’ that goes rogue. Bet you the gnome has a man-bun.
[source:ap]
