Disrupt Burrup Hub activist Joana Partyka at the Museum of Western Australia with the perspex on which she spray painted the Woodside logo.Disrupt Burrup Hub activist Joana Partyka at the Museum of Western Australia with the perspex on which she spray painted the Woodside logo.A close descendant of the acclaimed artist Frederick McCubbin has come out in support of the Western Australian Museum after it came under fire over an unusual acquisition.
“It is the museum’s job to collect material significant to our state’s cultural life,” she told Guardian Australia. “We’ve got 8 million items in our collections and amongst those there are a small number of items that relate to protests, whether it’s, whether it’s protesting against the Vietnam draft, whether it’s conflicting views on the plebiscite on gay marriage. These are issues we need to document.”The protester who led the act of defacement on the McCubbin work, Joana Partyka, claimed victory on social media, posting a video and photos of herself visiting the perspex at the museum on Wednesday.
Partyka, who was fined $2,500 and ordered to pay the gallery $5,000 in costs, both of which were paid using crowdsourcing, told Guardian Australia she had received nothing but support for her actions on social media. “Significant police and court resources were used to deal with this case, and now we see a state government entity effectively endorsing this kind of behaviour by putting it on display,” the statement said, going on to call on the Cook government to review the museum’s procurement processes as a matter of priority.At a transport press conference on Thursday, the deputy premier, Rita Saffioti, said she did not accept the museum’s justification that it was merely preserving history.
“A staff member carried it the 30 metres across the Cultural Centre from our sister institution in their lunch break,” he said, adding the item would be available upon request to researchers of environmental activism in the 2020s.