Unorthodox Annapolis mural attracts support
‘I’m going to chain myself to the building if they try to alter it’
Annapolis, West Street at noon, a van slowed before the mural. The driver: “What’s the picture?” “It’s a Buddha,” Jonathan Stone said from the sidewalk. “And a scene from ‘Battleship Potemkin,’ a1925 Soviet movie.”
People gathered Tuesday across from the modern mural that was challenging conventions in the Historic District.
M.B. Hughes, who paints rock ’n’ roll portraits in Eastport, said, “I’m going to chain myself to the building if they try to alter it.”
Annapolis artist Jeff Huntington painted the 20-by-50-foot mural on the facade of the West Street restaurant tsunami over the weekend. The project did not have city approval.
It has since incited debate about the future of downtown, about preservation vs. change, about the city of the past vs. the city of the present.
“The larger conversation is about allowing contemporary art to merge with the Historic District,” Huntington said. “If it was another sailboat-and-crab mural, nobody would bat an eye.”
His mural reveals a single face, divided into two. The left side is a golden Buddha with curlicue hair; the right is a screaming nurse from the Soviet film.
It represents peace and bliss; violence and agony. And it’s titled, with a nod to Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, “Agony and Ecstasy Lives Together in Perfect Harmony.”
Tsunami, located at 51 West St., falls just within the western boundary of the Historic District. The mural wasn’t approved by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
The restaurant’s owners intend to apply for approval retroactively. The commission could approve the mural, require changes or order it to be painted over entirely.
“I will not make alterations,” Huntington said. “That’s like asking a singer to write a song, but don’t talk about this, this or this.”
The Capital of Annapolis asked 10 passers-by: Should it stay or go?
“I’d vote to keep it,” said Bevin Buchheister, who works across the street. “I think it adds to the funkiness of West Street.”
“I think it should stay,” agreed Jenny Smeltzer, walking past. “It’s lovely and we need more art.”
Similarly, Lew Bobbitt said, “Leave it — it raises the level of art on the street.”
Richard Davis, eating lunch along West Street, said the discussion captures Buddhist teachings that change is inevitable and should be embraced.
He spent 2008 to 2010 teaching English in Japan and learning Buddhist teachings.
Across the table from him sat Susan O’Brien. “There are rules for a reason,” she said. O’Brien spoke of waterfront development around the county.
“It’s always easier,” she said, “to pay for forgiveness than ask for permission.”
One of tsunami’s owners, Gavin Buckley, said he didn’t know they needed approval.
Eight of the passers-by said the mural should stay. Two said tsunami owners should have obtained approval before commissioning the work.
The image of the screaming nurse comes from the climactic peak of “Battleship Potemkin,” a silent film commissioned by Vladimir Lenin to remind Soviet comrades of the brutality of the czars.
Director Sergei Eisenstein’s film depicts a mutiny of Russian sailors — incited in part by maggot-ridden meat — that ends with the massacre of families, including the nurse, shot through the eye, her mouth open in a silent scream.
“It’s very modern for something in the Historic District,” Jennifer Rose said. “I could go either way.”