A Hellish Coach filled with Horrors rode into town 3 weeks early for Halloween last year, fairly late at night.
Citizens of Kings Heath, Birmingham, awoke to find the Visionary Vehicle had spookily materialised, as if by magic, outside All Saints Church in Kings Heath Village Square on Thursday 12th and – even more spookily – on Friday 13th October, 2023.
A Bus from Hell – awaiting us in the future if we don’t tackle climate change, folks
But Freddy Krueger was nowhere in sight. This Hell Bus, designed and
constructed by artist Darren Cullen, as featured in the ‘Joe Lycett v The Oil
Giant’ Channel 4 documentary, did not contain traditional Halloween Horrors,
such as Jack O ’Lanterns, Zombies and Skeletons, but rather a variety of
darkly humorous adverts and satirical interactive installations that a local
vicar was reported to have liked very much. The bus depicted conditions that would arise on our planet – Earth – if Oil Companies are allowed to continue to extract Fossil Fuels.
Hell – It could happen here
Some of the Grimly Humorous ads and installations inside the bus – Work of the Devil?
The bus’s appearances in Kings Heath, as well as in Balsall Heath outside the GAP Arts Cafe – during the Second Saturday festival – were part of a nationwide tour sponsored by charities Switch it Green and Adfree Cities.
Social Entrepreneur and Activist Sophie Cowen explaining how to ‘Switch it Green’ to passersby and a greyhound in Kings Heath Square
‘Advertising must be the most evil type of industry’ said bus curator and
artist Darren Cullen, at a meeting arranged by AdFree Cities to encourage
locals to take a role in influencing Ads shown in their area, ‘because it must
be worse than the worst industry it promotes.’
Greenwashing by companies such as Shell delays effective action on climate
by giving the impression that they are part of the solution, risking horrific
future weather, drought and displacement of people. ‘Advertising can cast a
spell on us and can make us do some wicked things’, said DamianJ, a local
poet and performance artist who helped to organise the Birmingham bus
stop, ‘And I don’t mean Wicked in a good way like they used to say in the 90s’
On Second Saturday AdFree Cities also explained that new electronic
advertising boards can use as much electricity as 5 households. The ghostly
light that emanates from them may also distract drivers, and have an
adverse effect on those with neurological conditions such as epilepsy. ‘We
don’t need illuminated adverts in our streets. They are a Nightmare’ said
local activist Damian Hursey.
But everyone who saw the Hell Bus’s visitation to The GAP Arts Cafe came
away not scared, but inspired and made more aware, particularly the young
people who viewed the exhibition. ‘The stop at The GAP Arts Project has been a big success and we are proud to have featured the bus as part of our commitment to educating young people on Environmental Issues’ said GAP Arts Project Director of Programming, Ella Marshall.
Young people from GAP Arts Project visiting the bus
So it turned out the Hell Bus’s Birmingham Halloween visit was not all that
mysterious after all. It was just driven there by a bus driver called Michael. Not actually the work of the Devil. Although Jo Lycett didn’t make an appearance. Which would have been slightly strange, if had he said he would. But he didn’t. Still – it is fair to say the buses appearances in both locations was fairly unusual for the time of year – so we have to ask – what on Earth could happen two or three weeks before next Halloween?
We can’t wait to find out, as long as the world is still here by then.
If you would like the Hell Bus to ride into your city a few weeks early for Halloween next year, at Christmas time for a family celebration, or just on an ordinary week day with nothing special happening, contact Adfree Cities, or Darren Cullen at @darren_cullen.
Joy in Enough 