The oil prints featured in this exhibition were made with birds killed by the Rena oil spill. They are just two of an estimated 20,000 birds killed after the shipwrecked Rena spilled 350 tonnes of oil into the Bay of Plenty.
The images are a stark reminder of the devastation an oil spill can cause.
Yet if the government’s recent decision to open NZ waters to deep sea oil drilling is not reversed, future spills could be more than a thousand times worse.
These works were created in a collaboration between Greenpeace and Publicis Mojo using oil from the shipwrecked Rena and birds killed by that oil.
We wish to acknowledge Nga Hapu o te Moutere o Matakana as the iwi with Mana Tanagata over the Matakana beach where the birds were found.
It is our hope this memorial to these animals will act as a warning against risking a much greater disaster in the future.
Just last year the Deepwater Horizon leaked 627,000 tonnes of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers spent months struggling to fix a problem 1.5 kilometres below the sea’s surface. A spill that size in NZ waters would devastate our coastline and wildlife and seriously damage our fishing and tourism industries.
The global oil giants now prospecting in NZ waters have been involved in numerous serious oil spills worldwide including the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Yet the NZ government has invited them to drill here, at depths of up to 3km.
Christchurch
11 - 14 April 10am to 6pm daily
Upstairs at the Crafted Coffee Company, Re:start Shopping Mall, Cashel St
Dunedin
17 - 21 April 10am- 6pm daily
Taste Merchants, 36 Lower Stuart St. Dunedin.
Wellington
24 April at 10:00 until 28 April at 18:00
Chaffers Gallery
1 Herd Street, Chaffers Dock
Oriental Bay
The prints made for the Oil On Canvas exhibition are all original prints made with the body of a little blue penguin and the oil that killed it
following the Rena shipwreck in the Bay of Plenty. The prints are not numbered because each is an original. No more will be made.
Some will be Contributed to galleries and some will be auctioned but we’re giving one away right here...
How to enter
To go in the draw to win simply make a comment below telling us what you think of the art! We'll choose our favourite comment and announce
the winner here on the 20th December. (This is only open to people in New Zealand and our word is final).
