We are asking you to rub your eyes, wipe away the mirage of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘beyond petroleum’, and create a truer portrait of an oil company in any way you like. It’s time to strip away the greenwash; in fact it’s time to save the whole planet from these robber barons with their bloody oil wars, climate chaos and massive pay hikes. We know there are better worlds out there, and they don’t include profit or fossil fuels…(or an art market, for that matter). It’s our desire to see London ablaze with powerful, passionate, positive and politicised art during the week – on streets, on airwaves, in galleries, in squats, cinemas – you name it. We’ve got a few plans we could do with some help with, but we’d be just as happy to see you and/or your compadres plan and carry out your own events and actions.

Events planned for the week include:
* A parade of true portraits of an oil company on June 21st (the date the National Portrait Award [NPA] winner will be announced) from BP HQ (St. James' Square, SW1) to the National Portrait Gallery (NPG, St. Martin's Lane). At the NPG we'll celebrate our creations and insist that the gallery severs its links with BP and Big Oil. From there we’ll head to our own space for more information and celebration.
* a spontaneous ‘art not oil’ happening in the NPG on June 16th, (NPA private view day).
* greeting visitors to BP-sponsored relay of ‘Faust’ - an opera about a man selling his soul to the devil? Hmm, how appropriate – from the Royal Opera House to Covent Garden Piazza, Canary Wharf, Belfast and, er, Eden Project, 19.6.04
* Your event here - your help’s needed to make these and more amazing acts of resistance to the oil madness take place during the week. No one's in charge, so if you have a fiendish plan that just might work, get out and make it happen...

Public meeting to meet, plot, eat and create: Sat May 8th, 2pm.
London Rising Tide benefit gig with films, food etc., Tufnell Park occupied social centre, 156-158 Fortess Road, May 13th.

Let’s kick the (oil) corporations out of the galleries, (not to mention museums, opera, planet earth etc…)

Contacts and further information: LRT, part of the Rising Tide UK and international networks, takes creative action to combat the root causes of climate chaos and to help build movements for social & ecological justice.
London Rising Tide: 07969 786770;  london@risingtide.org.uk
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk (from May 1st)
See also www.burningplanet.net & Rising Tide UK: www.risingtide.org.uk