Bateman smears famous work to protest pipeline
Video (at link at bottom): Bateman paints over painting in protest
Symbolic smearing meant to demonstrate hazards of spills
Mar 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Petti Fong
Western Canada Bureau Chief
VANCOUVER–Paintbrush in hand, poised over the canvas of orcas swimming in the ocean, wildlife artist Robert Bateman had a momentary feeling of uncertainty.
But when the black paint touched a $2,000 print of his famous painting, Orca Procession, Bateman knew defacing one of his most beloved images was the right thing to do.
To support environmentalists arguing against opening up the waterways off the northern coast of British Columbia, Bateman agreed to show, as part of a video, what an oil spill would look like on one of his works.
"I've never painted a whole canvas black before," said Bateman.
The video circulating on the YouTube website is part of a campaign by Victoria environmental group Dogwood Initiatives to kill any plans for a pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to coastal Kitimat, B.C., and the feared rise in oil tanker sea traffic it would bring.
"You can't just say we can always clean (an oil spill) up, because the cleanup is often more damaging," said Bateman, an environmentalist and renowned wildlife painter. Enbridge Pipelines Inc. is proposing a pipeline from Strathcona County, near Edmonton, to a proposed new marine terminal in Kitimat, on B.C.'s north central coast.
The cities of Kitimat and Prince Rupert, to the north, have long touted their proximity to Asia as a reason to develop their ports.
Charles Campbell, a spokesperson for Dogwood, says currently about 320 tankers travel through the Hecate Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound and the Douglas Channel and the proposed pipeline would increase that traffic – and the chances of a calamitous spill.
A tanker moratorium, in place since 1972, says American tankers can't go through Canadian passages while travelling between Alaska and the rest of the U.S.
But environmentalists say the proposed pipeline would increase Canadian tanker traffic and the moratorium should be expanded to include them.
Like Kitimat, Prince Rupert, which is farther north, is also looking to expand its port.
"We showed (the Bateman video) to a large public gallery and when you see that black paint touch the canvas, there were gasps from the crowd because it's completely unexpected," said Campbell. "That would be the nature of an oil spill."
Kitimat Chamber of Commerce president Pauline Maitland said her business community is enthusiastic about any pipeline.
"The chamber has a close relationship with Enbridge, we've been updated on their progress and we're quite supportive," she said yesterday.
"This will be a breakout port in Kitimat and along with a container port in Prince Rupert it is a huge opportunity for the north."
According to an Enbridge website, the company has filed a preliminary information package with regulatory agencies and the federal government to help with the many reviews that would be required before such a project could proceed.
Bateman, who washed the black poster paint off his studio print after the video was made, says the sinking of the Queen of the North Ferry two years ago should serve as a warning. Residents of Hartley Bay, who helped rescue ferry passengers, have sued for damages from the effects of the shipwreck.
