‘This was inspired by the double-standard around violence, not just in Israel’s occupation and destruction of Palestine, but also in the “monopoly of violence” that is held by states, police, militaries, and intelligence agencies, which allows politicians and commentators to claim that “violence is never the answer” when referring to a regular person defending themselves against a police attack, punching a Nazi in the street, or pushing a cream pie into a politician or CEO’s face; but which also allows them to not flinch at the application of unimaginable levels of cruel, and even sadistic, violence as long as the people inflicting that violence wear the correct uniform.’ – Darren Cullen
Darren Cullen, who also operates as ‘Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives’, runs the Museum of Neoliberalism (whose opening was mentioned in PN 2636 – 2637). The Museum, and Darren’s studio, are looking for a new home as developers have finally got planning permission to demolish Leegate shopping centre in Lewisham, South London (four years later than expected). Darren writes: ‘I might as well fling this out into the void, but if anyone out there [in the UK] has a light industrial or commercial unit burning a hole in their pocket that they could do me a deal on [for the long term], get in touch.’
Darren’s 2023 was focused on Shell, with three major projects: a Hell Bus/Hell Petrol Station installation at Glastonbury festival; trips to Nigeria to film a documentary and build a Niger Delta Hell Bus (including being invited to the Niger Delta’s first climate change conference); and a UK Hell Bus tour spreading the news about Shell.