Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism

This is a documentary about two artists, Ackroyd and Harvey, a couple who use art as activism. Their work spans decades in the UK and here it is shown in particular connection with conservationism and the Extinction Rebellion. In UK and Irish cinemas from 19^th September.

The film starts with Ackroyd (Heather) and Harvey (Dan) playfully chatting to the camera sat in their studio working on one of their latest exhibits ‘Penny Pangolin’. It is part of an exhibition to highlight the extinction rate of many species, with the pangolin being one of the highest. It is going on display at the David Attenborough building, at the University of Cambridge, where they have had a three year residency.

The place brings together lots of global conservation organisations and combines artists with science, which conservationist Dr John Fanshawe says, to use an unfortunate expression, is fuelling the conversations in conservation around the world, including at the world economic forum in Davos. 

Another installation of theirs, ‘Seeing Red…Overdrawn’, is an interactive art work with the names of 4,734 critically endangered species that invites the public to ink in the Latin and common names of the species. The mural has connotations (along with the pangolin) of the later pandemic and the National Covid Memorial on London’s Southbank. As Dan Harvey says, we’re heading to the sixth largest mass extinction on the planet, it’s human induced and people are acting like its business as usual. You can’t just sit around and do nothing.

Writer Louisa Buck underlines the fact that the climate crisis is a climate catastrophe and that artists are leading the way in constantly raising the consciousness through their work to ensure the world sits up and takes notice and hopefully does something about it. 

The talking heads include Heather’s artistic mentor and friend Cornelia Parker who introduced her to the work of artist David Nash, which led Heather to begin working with natural materials such as grass seeds and the couple’s major breakthrough making photographic portraits using grass photosynthesis.

Not everyone appreciates the value of art and in a snippet chat show host Judy Finnegan asks the all-important question: what’s the point – this isn’t art? when interviewing the couple about a grassy walled installation at a disused South London church. 

It may not always be obvious in their work, but their involvement with conservation and activism sees them returning with ‘grass coats’ at London Fashion Week and the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in 2019, which they first modelled in protest against fur at London Fashion Week in the early 90s. Aiming to unite the fashion industry in combating climate change, the activists rightly proclaim the impact of one school girl, Greta Thunberg, and the need for big industries to be on board (albeit whilst having the financial responsibility to suc-ceed). Ackroyd and Harvey continue with the XR occupation protests in central London that includes poetry readings and the support of actress Emma Thompson as well as the thousands that camped out on the streets.

Directed by Fiona Cunningham-Reid, the documentary provides an interesting insight into the lives of a formidable artistic couple who have worked together over many years in the UK. Their credibility in the art world is clear having being selected as the country’s 2012 Olympic artists alongside Anish Kapoor and besides the art and conservation, the documentary also focuses on their relationship over the time period, that includes the pandemic, which had a big impact on them; and they openly talk about this too.

The striking visuals of the art speak for themselves and are made especially poignant because of the climate activism and the couple’s unique standing in the art world. Their peaceful art of activism is a welcome sign of intelligence in a world still unapologetically at loggerheads over the future of the planet, which there seems not enough legislation for.