Canada Games mural vandalized
One of northern B.C.’s most prominent murals, one seen throughout the nation as a pivotal image of the 2015 Canada Winter Games, got defaced overnight.
When Shonda Shaw came to work on Wednesday morning, she saw that a spray-paint vandal had left a mark known as a “tag” – the anonymous vandal’s sprayed signature.
“I am so fumed,” said Shaw, who works for the building’s owner, local entrepreneur Fritz Hausot. “When we acquired the building about two and a half years ago, we repainted the building but we went to great lengths to keep that painting as it was. We think it was an important part of an important time in Prince George. And then this happens.”
The painting dominates the visual impression of the corner at Fifth Avenue and Quebec Street. What’s especially galling is how upset the public was when an even larger mural, a massive Aboriginal collage on the former PG Lock & Key Building, was deliberately painted over when that building changed ownership several years ago. Now, on the same block, this acclaimed mural has also been disfigured.
The public knows this image well. It’s the face of a goggled snowboarder on a mountain, with another snowboarder doing a trick in the reflection of the goggles.
It was painted by noted artist Milan Basic, unveiled July 27, 2012 on what was then Canada Games House – the headquarters for the Games organizers.
The Canada Winter Games committee commissioned Basic to paint the mural there.
Stuart Ballantyne, CEO of the 2015 Canada Winter Games, used the world “phenomenal” to describe the mural.
“I think it’s iconic,” he said. “That’s what we wanted to achieve with launching our offices here in downtown. We knew that that was a great space to put a mural and we thank the BID Group for giving us the opportunity to have the canvas and a new office but we also thank Milan Basic for just an amazing piece of art that will last forever.”
The building was owned at the time by the BID Group of Companies. It was owned by Canada Post to begin with, and indeed the downtown post office is still located there. North District RCMP also called the place home for many years.
Basic estimated he spent between 30 and 40 hours on the project and said he was happy to have been given the opportunity to do it.
“I’m really big on community, and
I feel like the way I can contribute to community is by bringing colour to Prince George,” he said on the day of the unveiling. “This is a legacy. This is a legacy for my children, for your children and on and on. That’s what matters the most to me.”
Basic used paint designed specifically for murals, so the piece will have a long life span. He said an anti-graffiti coating will be applied, which he finds ironic because he started out as a graffiti artist many years ago.
“That’s what cracks me up,” laughed Basic.
The longevity of that coating will now be tested. Consultations are underway with the Community Arts Council and the RCMP to track down a potential solution to the damaged art and track down a possible identity of the vandal.
“It’s just so huge, a big, ugly mess,” said Shaw. “Taggers have hit our walls before (on the nondescript cosmetic paint) and we’ve just painted over that. But to vandalize a mural, that is just unbelievable, so disrespectful, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
Anyone with information on whom the vandal might be is asked to contact the RCMP 250-561-3300.