Ford’s clean-walls crusade erases a mural the city paid an artist $2,000 to paint
It seems the first friendly fire casualty has fallen in Rob Ford’s war on graffiti. The mayor’s Clean Toronto Together campaign—which, apparently, is quite a boon for the wall-cleaning business—may have overstepped its mandate when it used grey and white paint to completely blot out a mural local artist Joel Richardson had been crafting on a rail underpass in the Junction.
The Toronto Star has the story:
Joel Richardson says in 2008 then-Davenport councillor Adam Giambrone’s office asked him to paint a mural on the north wall of the underpass west of Lansdowne Ave., on the funky Junction Triangle neighbourhood’s eastern edge.
The colourful scene of faceless men in suits, dollar signs and hearts, funded mostly through donations from local businesses, proved popular enough, he says, that Giambrone’s staff asked him to paint another mural on the south wall, and helped him get a $2,000 commission from the city’s Clean and Beautiful secretariat.
The painter and filmmaker had spent 30 hours working on the piece since the end of the last September and had roughly another 10 to go. But he learned Monday that the city had painted over his art because it had not been authorized or commissioned and may have involved a reference to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (who, it seems, is such a generic-looking guy that any figure in a suit can be construed as a decent representation).
On the other hand, we wonder if this may be an example of a clandestine employment program for struggling local artists: we’ll wait to see if Richardson gets re-hired to repaint his mural over the concrete canvas of the last one.
• Artist says city erased mural it paid him to paint [Toronto Star]
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On the other hand, we wonder if this may be an example of a clandestine employment program for struggling local artists: we’ll wait to see if Richardson gets re-hired to repaint his mural over the concrete canvas of the last one.
• Artist says city erased mural it paid him to paint [Toronto Star]
(Images: before: Joel Richardson; after: Joel Richardson)){kind=link}
WHAT IDIOTS. That was a really fantastic mural. Ugh.
Which countries paint over art because it might be political (whether intended or not)? Hmmmmm . . . Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, China, North Korea, various others and . . . Toronto (OK, so I got the country bit wrong). Welcome to the new freedom, the new open society, the city that honours difference, the world class city that embraces differing points of view. The city that isn’t afraid to speak out.
WHAT IDIOTS. THEY SHOULD HAVE BUFFED THAT SHIT AGES AGO! JOEL IS A TOY!
Gee, that looks really great now.
GRAVY TRAIN!
Am sad to see that this mural was erased… That said, what I really have a problem with is the fact that the former councillor, Giambrone, had the latitude to use public monies to commission art projects in his ward. This is a privilege that can be easily abused in that commissions can easily be directed to individuals who support that particular councillor. I am not against publicly-commissioned art — but I am dead-set against individual councillors having the authority to commission whomever they want to do public art projects. That is not an appropriate use of public funds.
Rob Ford is an assmonkey. My apologies to monkeys everywhere. It is rude of me to equate them with Rob Ford.
I think the guy looks like Sean Astin from LOTR.