Graffiti on Outdoor Gallery mural - Kinsale Road

[just_browsing]

Sadly someone has vandalised the Mehdi Ghadyanloo mural on Kinsale Road - see pic. Gallery and specialist paint suppliers have been made aware, but any other suggestions hugely welcome.

Especially gutting so soon after the sad passing of Ingrid Beazley, who put so much energy and passion into this and the other murals.

Any wise ideas on getting this c@$p off?

[Nigello]

I would your local councillor. There is a type of clear varnish that will protect paint. I heard the council may think it hazardous, but it is widely available and will have been put through all the right tests, so I don't buy it. (If you search it online you will find it is about ?25. I think a few cans of this paid for by Cleaner, Greener Southwark would be useful.)

Glad that you informed the police because they may be able to build up a profile.

FYI, the council will remove tagging from property that is private if you sign a waiver: 020 7525 2000 for the environment department, I think.

[rendelharris]

Tossers. I didn't know that one, hope it can be restored, looks wonderful.

[nxjen]

Love this mural, one of my favourites. On the other hand, there?s an interesting discussion to be had about the spontaneity of graffiti occurring on a managed piece of street art.

[solar]

Such a shame. It's my favourite one. Hope it can be restored.

[just_browsing]

Many thanks all. We've ordered in the paint Mehdi used and are working with the paint suppliers and the gallery that represents him to do our best to get it back to its old self. Thanks for tips on varnish (part of question is breathability of varnish but seems the tech may have moved on since we last looked), while with all due respect to the council, the fear of them just painting over in white means we're exploring these other options. But it is great they offer the service.

As for graffiti spontaneity, I get the argument more when the original piece is more 'graffiti' in nature and style (and to be clear, nothing wrong at all with that, not a criticism or snobbery) when you can at times see a genuine coming together of different artists' efforts, but here, with a combination of a precise and pristine mural that could be replicated in a gallery print / painting on the one side and a meaningless tag with zero artistic effort or merit, I am disinclined to agree on this occasion.

[Nigello]

On the other hand, there?s an interesting discussion to be had about the spontaneity of graffiti occurring on a managed piece of street art.

......

[flocker spotter]

Nigello Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> On the other hand, there?s an interesting

> discussion to be had about the spontaneity of

> graffiti occurring on a managed piece of street

> art.

>

> ......

There is not much chance of that on here I fear.

[Nigello]

I was quoting a previous poster. I would love to hear more.

[rendelharris]

Graffiti over extant graffiti and graffiti over a piece of artwork which happens to be on a public wall are worlds apart, don't you think? The Last Supper is painted on a wall, were some chump to decide to tag it that wouldn't be a subject for interesting discussion, it would be an outrage...I'm probably a hidebound old reactionary but this sort of crap seems not much different to me than smashing windows for fun.

ETA to expand slightly, I assume most people quite like the outside of their dwelling to look nice, would they be happy and think it interesting if someone came and tagged it? In which case what makes a work of public art (which is still someone's wall) any different, except that it is vandalizing something into which much more effort has been put and will be much more difficult to repair?

[edhistory]

Under capitalism the starting point for a discussion might be "Who owns it?",

Nigello Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> On the other hand, there?s an interesting

> discussion to be had about the spontaneity of

> graffiti occurring on a managed piece of street

> art.

>

> ......

[Seabag]

The tagging in that pink is in itself quite a nice scheme. There's some thought gone into it.

[maxxi]

I suspect the tagger would have used this wall regardless of what was or wasn't on it... Or maybe they thought the signature written in the corner was another tagger so it was ok to write on?

I'm kidding.

I am.

[nxjen]

When I posted earlier, I was thinking of the origins of street art which emerged and evolved from graffiti in the 1970s as a spontaneous and subversive art form. The Dulwich Street Art Gallery epitomises how street art has been assimilated into the mainstream traditional art establishment, and made respectable, losing all its guerilla roots and expressiveness. I?m not saying that?s a bad thing, but I think there?s a statement made by the graffiti on this mural, whether it was made consiously or not.

[jimmyraj]

Someone tagged the Walter Kershaw mural on the corner of Choumert Road / Bellenden Road last year.

I think there's a big divide between the origins of graffiti as an art form and crap tags done by a 14 year old.

[nxjen]

The originators of graffiti as an art form probably started as 14 year olds doing crap tags.

[just_browsing]

They tagged the building site hoarding opposite too, either as an extended part of their articulate and adroit artistic and social commentary or because, you know, it was there.

[edhistory]

just_browsing:

Are you acting as an agent for the owner of the mural?

[just_browsing]

I think I prefer Picasso's efforts as a 14 year old, see attached, but hey

[flocker spotter]

nxjen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The originators of graffiti as an art form

> probably started as 14 year olds doing crap tags.

well done for trying to get a discussion going, but it is wasted on here

[rendelharris]

There certainly won't be a discussion if instead of joining in the discussion people just post (twice!) "there's not going to be a discussion"!

[Sue]

nxjen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The originators of graffiti as an art form

> probably started as 14 year olds doing crap tags.

Yep.

And I'm going to the Basquiat exhibition next week.

Graffiti morphed into art worth millions of pounds and a show at the Barbican.

Discuss.

[east-of-the-Rye]

I thought this policeman on Consort Road was great, with a lovely smile, but someone tagged his face (before I took this picture) and changed his expression.The whole picture was, I suppose, graffiti, and has gone now - there are houses there now.

[maxxi]

Let's be honest it's a pretty awful mural anyway, bland, obvious, pointless and derivative.

[Nigello]

Yeah, so let's destroy it!