And then at quarter past seven, eight people dressed in black with veils over their heads walk slowly towards the Manton Street entrance. They are carrying black buckets with the BP logo painted clearly on them. It's clear that something odd is about to happen, but everyone is peculiarly frozen to the spot. Only when the first protester throws the contents of his bucket forward down the steps of the entrance do the assembled crowd realise that what is happening is molasses. About five gallons of it.
Others protesters from the art activist group Liberate Tate tip their buckets forward too, spilling the thick brown-black liquid across the pavement and down the steps to the party entrance (watch the video above). Then they pull feathers from their pockets and throw them on top of the molasses. The party guest beside me – a woman in turquoise separates - is beside herself with fury. As the protesters scatter through the dumbstruck crowd, she grabs at the veil on the head of one (moving a lot faster than any of the security guards, who seem to be processing events on dial-up rather than broadband) and pulls it off, shouting "How dare you! How dare you! Get him! Get him!"
An excerpt from a letter to the guardian.co.uk. signed by more than 170 artists including playwright, Caryl Churchill:
As crude oil continues to devastate coastlines and communities in the Gulf of Mexico, BP executives will be enjoying a cocktail reception with curators and artists at Tate Britain. These relationships enable big oil companies to mask the environmentally destructive nature of their activities with the social legitimacy that is associated with such high-profile cultural associations.
We represent a cross-section of people from the arts community that believe that the BP logo represents a stain on Tate's international reputation. Many artists are angry that Tate and other national cultural institutions continue to sidestep the issue of oil sponsorship. Little more than a decade ago, tobacco companies were seen as respectable partners for public institutions to gain support from – that is no longer the case. It is our hope that oil and gas will soon be seen in the same light. The public is rapidly coming to recognise that the sponsorship programmes of BP and Shell are means by which attention can be distracted from their impacts on human rights, the environment and the global climate.
