Story

On July 5, 2011, I received word from Reverend Billy and & The Church of Earthalujah that he was taking his flock to London in order to “lay hands on the Tate Modern, and cast out the evil demon of BP’s oil sponsorship.” The good Reverend had been invited to the U.K. by activists groups Liberate Tate, UK Tar Sands Network, Rising Tide, Art Not Oil and Climate Rush, and he was scheduled to exorcise the Tate Modern on July 18th.

On July 16, BP announced yet another pipeline leak at its Lisburne oilfield on Alaska’s North Slope.

 A couple of days ago, on Monday 18 July, 5.30pm on the dot, a man in a white suit, dog collar and spectacular hair falls to his knees in the Turbine Hall of the world’s most visited modern art gallery, London’s Tate Modern, and begins to testify. His voice echoes throughout the huge hall, climbing up to the stunned ears of hundreds of tourists and art lovers who pause on the walkways to look down to see what the hell is going on.

 AN American performance group, British artists, activists and art lovers are planning to exorcise the demons of a London gallery's relationship with a major oil company.

 The Reverend Billy & the Church of Earthalujah preached a sermon loud and clear in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern today, urging and end to extraction of oil for the Tar Sands and of arts sponsorship by BP which gives a company engaged in this most polluting activity a false green image. London, UK. 18/07/2011

 Reverend Billy leads mass exorcism in Tate Modern Turbine Hall over ‘taint’ of BP sponsorship

American performance group and British artists, activists and art lovers congregate in call for gallery to end its relationship with oil company

 Fringe Review

 Reverend Billy and the Church of Earthalujah is part theatre, part church service and part performance art – on Monday 18th July, the Church of Earthalujah condemned the corporate exploiters and polluters of the world to the Lake of Hellfire.

 A wise, non-brown nosing commentator once stated that the potential purposes of art are to ‘enlighten, entertain and/or shock.’ In a media controlled era when stories are routinely picked up and put down according to bribes received for the purpose of hoodwinking and misleading readers doggedly attempting to plow their way through a myriad of celebrity tattle in the popular, (rather than populist) press, tiny glimmers of truth emerge, generally under the mantles of the futile and ridiculous.

 Zondag is Reverend Billy, bekend van het bestoken van Starbucks-vestigingen en andere nare multinationals, op bezoek in Amsterdam. Hij brengt het hele Earthalujah Gospel Choir met zich mee.