Anti-Olympic paintings appear at site of removed Beatty Street murals

by Travis Lupick on Jan 11, 2010 at 10:19 am
Comments
Stenciled paintings criticizing the 2010 Winter Olympic Games appeared on Beatty Street sometime between January 8 and 11.
Travis Lupick

Stenciled paintings criticizing the 2010 Winter Olympics have appeared on a concrete wall on Beatty Street where a series of murals once existed.

Related content

Beatty Street murals painted over by City of Vancouver

City’s removal of Beatty Street murals handled poorly: artists

The new paintings consist of the Olympic rings surrounded by text reading, “With glowing hearts we kill the arts”. The graffiti art appeared between Friday (January 8) and Monday (January 11).

The murals that once covered the wall were painted over by the City of Vancouver on December 23. Those paintings were commissioned by the Steve Nash Foundation in 2007 and were created by 16 artists under the direction of Milan Basic.

The wall borders a large parking lot at the corner of Georgia Street and Beatty Street that has been designated as an Olympic venue scheduled to be used for entertainment during the Games.

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Paintings since removed by the City of Vancouver. On Beatty Street between Dunsmuir and Georgia streets.


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Comments (72) Add New Comment
MG
Jan 11, 2010 at 11:19 am
What a shame, those murals look nice.
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Liddlethought
Jan 11, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Send your video clips, taken by your cell phones or any other video device, of the Olympic, Paralympic, Torch Relay and Celebrations to weRwatching2010 [at] gmail.com to participate in my art project. Video clips will be projected in a large-scale video public art project in Vancouver during the games. Project details can be found at www.liddlethought.blogspot.com Thanks, and pass it on!
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SeanC
Jan 11, 2010 at 12:30 pm
We had an amazing view of this mural from our apartment building. It looked incredible and I would often stop to stare at it while walking by.

Apparently this constitutes "graffiti" to VANOC who decided to paint over it with the most hideous shade of blue I've ever seen. This will of course be painted over, but hopefully the artist will continue putting his message there.

Thank you!
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hoping for some protesting
Jan 11, 2010 at 4:16 pm
how about some virtual graffitti protesting on the buildings downtown...or maybe onto the side of GM place....
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Greg McKinnon
Jan 11, 2010 at 6:12 pm
This is an afront to free speech. When facisim comes to Canada it will be called "Democracy".
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Mike Wink
Jan 11, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Fucking city council. There isn't much one can say at this point! I'm young and I know things are already at the point of no return.
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Ryan Bolli
Jan 11, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Yep, we sure are a free country. Where you can only as free as they will allow you to be.

How do you feel about your life? Is this what you call an existence that is to your benefit? Do you have any say in this? or is the rich mofo who has control?

Never mind, you're probably watching Entertainment Tonight and don't want to be disturbed.....
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Ashamed Vancouverite
Jan 11, 2010 at 9:04 pm
It is a shame when something so inspiring and beautiful can be destroyed because people could possibly consider this grafitti? It is terrible the government feels the need to ruin what little true culture we have left in this city.... And they consider a giant ball of shiny tinfoil "art"
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Sixx
Jan 11, 2010 at 9:06 pm
I agree.
Those were well done and I liked seeing them.
A solid bright blue wall is obviously so much better....??
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A
Jan 11, 2010 at 10:20 pm
How many of us and how much paint do you think it would take for a new nice mural to go up. I'm down with painting some orcas or something in the middle of the night!

Seriously though, I loved those murals, and every time I had out of province family visiting, they commented on them positively. Painting over them was definitely the wrong move.
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Michael H.
Jan 11, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Note that it was the City of Vancouver who painted over this - not VANOC. But that IS an ugly shade of "bloo."
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miguel
Jan 12, 2010 at 7:23 am
Who says VANOC isn't doing anything for the arts; look at the blank canvas they've provided.

Yeah, the blue is bilious.
Miguel
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anti-Olympics
Jan 12, 2010 at 8:30 am
Michael ^^ the mural was covered up via VANOC. VANOC is a corporation and in it to make $$$ (and make lots of $$$ for their corporate friends - developers, managers, etc).

i agree with the commenter above calling for the virtual graffitti. There's ways to do it with a laptop/projector/laser pen (www.graffitiresearchlab.com).
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Dethe Elza
Jan 12, 2010 at 9:04 am
The Olympics came upon us
Like some kind of curse
Steal from the poor and give to the rich
Like Robin Hood in reverse
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webbgerl
Jan 12, 2010 at 10:23 am
I would like to know who made the call to cover up that beautiful mural. If we could only go back down the chain of command to find out and publicly shame them. It is a disgrace covering up local artists work. That is the kind of thing that Vancouverites can be proud of, it is what makes the city unique. It is what visitors are expecting to see. I have not heard one person say they found it offensive, only how much they enjoyed looking at it.
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Highdee
Jan 12, 2010 at 10:25 am
Way to take the ownership of the city away from your people! Local artists worked hard on something ALL Vancouverites were proud about. Now our own city took our pride. All for what? To hide our culture, our sence community? City of Vancouver you contunue to dissapoint. What once was a symbol of community and a sence of togertherness is now all just a joke for some big-wigs from over seas.
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DdK
Jan 12, 2010 at 11:48 am
Thank you for painting over this non-graffiti. It makes it so much easier to decide who not to vote for.
Way to work for the people council members.
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CA
Jan 12, 2010 at 1:38 pm
That mural gave the street character. Why hide the culture and character of our city? What could possibly have been going through their minds when they painted it blue? When the Olympics came to Barcelona, did they try to cover up Gaudi?
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Michael Smith
Jan 12, 2010 at 4:22 pm
The best of graffiti is my favourite public art. Graffiti is art too. Long live graffiti!!
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Rika
Jan 12, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Well done, i have been upset about this lost mural all week, and glad the arts community gave its voice to the afront. A good article on cbc to
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2008/10/22/vanoc-art.html
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