SEPTEMBER 3, 2020
C I T Y H U B SY D N E Y. C O M . AU @CityHubSydney
Political mural in Marrickville vandalised BY ALLISON HORE political mural in Marrickville was defaced on Thursday night, less than 24 hours after it was painted. The mural titled, ‘Vote or Die - Deal with the devil’, depicted US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Scott shaking hands atop a pile of skulls. However, the mural was washed over with white paint over just hours after being completed. The street artist behind the work, Crisp, told City Hub the mural is about Australia’s deals with the US as well as the nations’ responses to climate change. “In the end it results in suffering and death and inequality on different levels
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and some of these deals support different regimes and different wars,” he explained. “The flames in the background highlight the dangers of climate change, one of the most important issues at the moment, and I don’t think either of the leaders in Australia or the US take it as seriously as they should.” He made the design based on a still from when President Trump and Prime Minister Morrison met. Crisp said he had been sitting on the design for a while but hadn’t had the opportunity to go out and paint it due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation and his work in the healthcare system. Another obstacle in getting the artwork
up was finding a place to paint it. Crisp said that compared to other places around the world where he has painted, it is much harder to find walls to paint political pieces in Sydney. “I find in Sydney that everyone is fine with aesthetically pleasing or pretty murals but everyone is really afraid of offending people and if it’s political they don’t want to have anything to do with it,” he said. In the end Crisp decided to go over a mural that he had already done, a collaboration with another artist he painted with the permission of the building’s owner. Crisp said that he had permission to paint in the same spot again but didn’t say what it was he intended to paint. After the building owner found out what the artwork
actually was, Crisp knew its stay would be limited. “I think he was already getting phone calls from people who had an issue with Trump and Morrison on the wall, so I think in the end he was discussing that he might have to paint over it,” he said. After talking with the owner of the building, he agreed to let the artwork stay up for a day to allow street art aficionados to see it in person and take photos of it. The owner then intended to paint over the artwork in black paint to match the wall behind it. However, overnight it was haphazardly covered in white paint by an unknown member of the community. Continued on page 2