Art organisation pvi hand-delivers ‘invoices’ to oil and gas companies to highlight social cost of carbon

Perth artists have got activism down to a fine art after hand-delivering giant mock invoices to the offices of major oil and gas companies.

Northbridge-based art organisation pvi — who have dubbed themselves the Social Licence Watchdogs — presented eight-foot-tall “first and final invoices” to the Perth offices of Woodside, Chevron, BHP, Glencore and INPEX last Wednesday.

The mock invoices total billions of dollars and are a nod to the environmental and societal damage caused by the companies’ carbon dioxide emissions.

“Despite the majority of Australians’ concerns for the fossil-fuelled climate emergency, the world’s biggest contributors to it — some of which have huge WA operations — are largely continuing business-as-usual or even expanding their exploits with seemingly little or no credible plans to decarbonise,” pvi co-founder Kelli McCluskey said.

“We’re asking people to consider, what is the true cost of enabling multi-national polluters to operate in this country and who should pay for the damages as a result?

“If a corporate entity pollutes a body of water or land, they’re liable for that damage, but pollute the atmosphere … and somehow no one is held to account.

“It’s time to reframe the climate change conversation and (we) feel the arts can play a significant role.”

pvi — which is based at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in Northbridge — is a 25-year-old art group creating “subversive and participatory artwork that disrupts everyday life in public spaces” in a bid to mobilise social change.

The giant invoices will be on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia from August 21 to September 9.

The invoices will be exhibited alongside a hand-sculpted urn commissioned by local artist, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah.