Covered-up street art angers
A heated debate has fired up in the Palmerston North arts community about a boarded-up mural in a public space.
The Palmerston North City Council agreed to covering up the street art because it was considered an unappealing backdrop for a pop-up sculpture by wellknown artist Paul Dibble.
But not everyone is happy, with the move criticised as negative and ‘‘disrespectful’’.
The mural, done by Auckland graffiti artist Haser, was installed in the civic administration building courtyard on Main St just along from The Square after the Beats and Brushes festival earlier this year.
It was a gift from the artist to the city council and was installed with council permission.
The space became the temporary home to a Dibble sculpture last week as an ongoing pop-up art project between Zimmerman Art Gallery and the council after a temporary sculpture last year proved popular.
The mural has been boarded up by the gallery because of the ‘‘aesthetic’’ of the graffiti-style mural.
Bronwyn Zimmerman, speaking on behalf of her gallery and Dibble, said the plans for the popup sculpture were well under way ‘‘when the new graffiti mural suddenly appeared overnight’’.
‘‘Rather than abandoning altogether the work that had already been done toward securing a second temporary Dibble sculpture for the site, Zimmerman consulted with the council’s placemaking person, Keegan Aplin-thane, on a solution to restore the original aesthetic.
‘‘The advice Zimmerman received from Keegan was that we could temporarily cover over the mural.’’
Aplin-thane confirmed that, while the council’s preference was that both artworks could co-exist, a concession was made because of the requirement by the sculpture artist.
A Facebook post on Palmy Arts alerting local artists to the fact started a debate.
People said the covering up of Haser’s artwork was ‘‘sad’’, ‘‘disappointing’’, ‘‘arrogant’’ and ‘‘disrespectful’’.
Safe As Gallery owner Kam Donnelly, who was instrumental in getting the mural installed, said Haser is a well known and respected artist, and there has been a huge response from the public. ‘‘We didn’t want this to provoke tension, but it has and we now want to put an end to it,’’ he said.
‘‘Because of all the feedback that Haser has been getting about his artwork, we are now going to be doing a full Haser show early in the new year and we have something special planned for the public.
‘‘We would like to extend the invite to Paul Dibble and Bronwyn Zimmerman to the opening of that show and we just want the negativity to stop.’’
Artist Mikal Carter, known as Swiftmantis, said Palmerston North had been attracting some high-calibre street artists, so the boarding-up was a ‘‘disappointing decision from that perspective’’.
‘‘But we’re a positive community, so we’re not interested in reflecting any negativity back. We’ll happily let the situation speak for itself and stay focused on creating.’’
Zimmerman said the Dibble sculpture would be in place for an ‘‘undetermined time’’ and on removal the boarded-up mural would be ‘‘seen again’’.
‘‘You can even see the top part of the mural ‘peeking out’ over the temporary boards – a hint that the mural has not been permanently erased.’’
Palmerston North City councillor Rachel Bowen said the pop-up sculpture installation was not an ‘‘exclusive arrangement’’ and she would be ‘‘excited to see other spaces in the central city used in this way’’.
‘‘Sometimes that will be controversial, as in this case, when people have different views on what’s been done.
‘‘Our arts community is vibrant, strong and opinionated. Those are good things.
‘‘This debate recognises the tension that we all deal with when we work in a shared space.’’