Commercial Drive mural hit (again) by “oil spill” graffiti
The people behind the "No Pipelines" graffiti up and down Commercial Drive are keeping artist Milan Basic busy. If you've ever seen the very blue mural at Commercial Drive and East 5th Avenue—until recently, reminiscent of the cover of the Nirvana album Nevermind—or his other murals around B.C., you know his work.
On February 25, I included a photo of the defaced mural in a story about the graffiti, which is drawing anger from locals. Soon after, Basic redid the mural, removing the "No Pipelines" text and the familiar swimmers.
Basic wrote on his website:
There has been a rash of graffiti on Commercial Drive this past year and one of my murals was hit twice in the same month. I managed to salvage it the first timer although the characters in the first version of this mural were destroyed by vandals. I decided to keep the underwater background. Since the message in the graffiti was no pipelines, I decided to paint a mural for this vandal in order to save them the trouble of having to go and spread their message in our neighborhood anymore.....after all, I do believe in his message. I figure one picture is worth a thousand of his words. The unfortunate part is that he is destroying his message by destroying public art. Now people are not loving the message so much. A corporate plot? Who knows? What warmed my heart the most was the outpouring of public support by the community.
I saw the mural's new look on March 16. As you can see from my photo, the mural actually takes in part of the sidewalk.
On Sunday (March 23), I went by the corner another time. The mural had been defaced again—this time with the text "Oil Spill" and a few streams of black paint to illustrate the message.
Reached by email today (March 24), Basic confirmed that it was another case of vandalism. He hopes to repair the mural later this week.
What do you think of all the "No Pipelines" graffiti around town? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Comments
23 Comments
cute
Mar 24, 2014 at 2:18pm
the little children are looking for attention again
Fool
Mar 24, 2014 at 2:46pm
All this is accomplishing is negative publicity towards a very worthwhile cause.
Gypsy
Mar 24, 2014 at 3:12pm
"No Pipelines" and associated graffiti is everywhere in the city- Kingsway, Main, Downtown, West Side, Dunbar, Collingwood, Sunrise-I've seen it in all of these neighbourhoods.
realist
Mar 24, 2014 at 3:13pm
earth shattering news. please keep us up to date.
water
Mar 24, 2014 at 3:43pm
the mural is lovely but maybe you should stop repairing it and let it be an anti pipeline mural. it is an important message. an oil spill cannot be so easily repaired. it seems like people get more upset about a mural being vandalized with anti-pipeline messages than an actual oil spill.
em
Mar 24, 2014 at 4:03pm
I'm against the pipeline, but defacing public art is just obnoxious and childish and will likely do more harm to the cause than good.
RUK
Mar 24, 2014 at 4:17pm
@water
Nnnnnn...no...pretty sure that people would be more upset about the oil spill.
But that does not override the ability to think that the vandal is a hack, turd, lame-o, and detriment to the cause.
What does the spraypainter think is in the spraypaint? Gee, no hydrocarbons there. Hyyyuk.
Pluck
Mar 24, 2014 at 5:07pm
Lets just stop the pipelines, then there will be no more obnoxious graffiti?
Fighting fire, with fire.
Mar 24, 2014 at 5:33pm
a "no pipeline" message, written over community mural art, with spray-paint! And Spray paint is made possible by the petroleum industry!
Andy
Mar 24, 2014 at 7:05pm
I think the artist should roll with the punches and adapt to the realitlity, like it or not, this will continue. I think it says something about the people offended and how they're more concerned with paint on some old building than the natural environment where the live and raise families. Ya'll need to get out of the city for a bit and reconnect with nature. I would love my children to see a message which provokes awareness around an important issue over art any day. If the artist reads this.... Please make a stronger statement in your mural and stand up for the cause you believe in and see this as the perfect opportunity to make a bold statement against what you know is a worthy cause anyhow. Can't wait to see the new version!