Think of this next time you fill your tank ...

I took a day off on Saturday (ok, I guess most people take Saturday off anyway ... but hey). I went to the documenta, which I had last been to in 1997. I once again thought it was great. There were some fun and entertaining pieces. There was a nice buzz in a city that was over 90% destroyed after the second world war. There was a really good guide who with distance and irony, and yet,clearly felt commitment to art, explained even some of the less easily understood pieces really well. And there was a lot of unashamedly political art - which I have a soft spot for (if it isn't trite). One of the highlights for me were the pictures of George Osodi. He is documenting what oil consumption really means. He is showing the oil rich Niger Delta as you will not find it in a Shell PR brochure. He is showing the exploitation - of nature and people - that goes along with the production of oil.
I guess we all have moments and issues that grip us at some point and really move us. That change our life. That make us the kind of activists that we are. The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1997 and the plight of the Ogoni that he died for was one such struggle and moment for me. It gripped me. It made me unable to not act, to turn away. To forget, what impacts our daily fossil-fueled lives have.
It makes me sad, that ten years on, the destruction in the Delta continues - and only gets noticed in the developed world, when western oil workers are abducted. All the better, though, that Osodi's pictures are on show at the documenta. They certainly inspired me. May they make the plight of the Delta better known once again; and may they shame those who still refuse to admit the real price of oil ...