I heard from my wife who was walking along Queen St about a month ago that it had been painted over.  She had gone in to talk to the store owner – who I had worked with over 2 years ago to paint the original mural.  He was upset.  He said that he had called the police and they told him to remove it.  He painted it over.

Mural @ Queen and Winnifred before tagging

Mural after tagging removed

The mural pictured above now only exists in photographs and online on a couple websites.

While I respect that graffiti is a legitimate form of art, and feel that graffiti artists contribute a great deal to the culture of public space in the city, I have a few concerns about this growing trend.

First, is about process.  The mural I painted, was not just painted by myself, but by 6 youth artists hired by the Ralph Thornton Centre as part of a summer mural project. I was leading the team.  Some of these youth had painted before, others had not – it was a learning experience for us all.  The process that we used was based on the idea that we had ideas – as muralists – about what the mural should look like and be about, but we also recognized that murals are public art.  Murals are seen by the entire community, they are an expression of the community, and they help define the community.  We agreed as a group that we would consult with community members, we would research locally to come up with subjects for the mural.  Based on the personal experiences of youth muralists, on our consultation with local activists and service providers, and our historical research, we decided to make a mural about the challenges and opportunities of immigration in South Riverdale.  The mural included stories of travel, employment and accreditation issues, access to services, family, tradition, change, discrimination, friendship, and play.  The fact that the mural, created in partnership with the community, was destroyed by one person is both frustrating and saddening.  I would have been happy to see the mural go if its removal involved a similar process of engagement, consultation, and consideration for the community’s struggles. I believe that public space is democratic space and if graffiti is going to destroy something the community created, then it had better be because a community said so.

Second, is about defending graffiti.  Many muralists are huge fans of graffiti art if they are not graffiti artists themselves.  This trend of tagging murals – and tags so big that you can’t see the mural anymore – is alienating muralists from graffiti artists when in reality the two should be defending each other and fighting together for the promotion and beautification of public spaces in Toronto.  I understand this is not all graffiti artists, and there have been some murals I have been glad to see tagged, but this graffiti is not gaining support from the muralist community.  Quite the contrary.

Third, is about territory and art funding in Toronto.  I can easily picture a graffiti artist (having friends who are graffiti artists) that would look at the above paragraph and say “you started it”. And they would be right.  Mural funding in the City of Toronto (through the Graffiti Transformation Program) pits muralists against graffiti artists.  The purpose of the program is to hire youth “to remove graffiti and resurface the walls with attractive murals.” My mural was part of this funding stream and says so at the bottom. The reality of the funding is that it’s easier to get money, wall space, and city council support for a program that is aimed at cleaning up the city – which can lead to economic or business development – rather than supporting murals hap-hazardly across the city. Tagging can often be a form of self-expression and marking personal territory of wall space.  I feel that this trend of tagging murals in East Toronto is a result of a funding system that pits graffiti artists and muralists against each other, when really there is a lot of common ground.

Graffiti artists and muralists should be defending each other and applauding each other’s work.  Where the two can meet is around advocating for policies that create and protect public acts of art on wall space and recognizing that public space is democratic space.  My hope is that a dialogue can be had to work through these issues and that a mutual respect for wall art can be fostered.

Please comment, add your own thoughts, let me know what you think.  But, don’t forget who’s du-boss of this blog.