Muralist’s eightstory baby cop is a protest
‘It’s about to get very real,’ anonymous street artist BiP writes
For about two months now, a massive new mural has been taking shape on a gray apartment building near the Van Ness Muni station. BiP, the anonymous San Franciscobased muralist, has been recording his progress on Instagram.
First were the child’s eyes and nose, then his furrowed brow and pursed lips, next a hand and the contours of a blue uniform.
On Thursday, BiP posted his latest update. The child wasn’t wearing just any blue uniform; he was wearing a police officer’s uniform. With just 60% of the mural complete, BiP also confirmed it was an act of protest —
“I am protesting you and all American police in regard to police brutality.” Street artist BiP
Graffiti artist BiP is working on a new mural in Hayes Valley. BiP said he protests against brutality, while acknowledging police put their lives on the line to protect communities.
one he’s wanted to paint for some time.
“I’m not trying to put you (police) all in the same bucket, I have personally witnessed acts of kindness from some of you,” the artist wrote on Instagram. “but if not, if this mural sits badly with you, then I’m sorry but it’s about to get very real. I’m about to go in on all of you. as big as I can. in the middle of downtown SF. that’s what’s happening here. (San Francisco Police Department) let me be clear I am protesting you and all American police in regard to police brutality.”
The statement energized his followers, who posted more than 200 comments on the video — and
it caught the building’s owners off guard.
“We’re a little surprised at the hottopic nature of it,” said Baha Hariri, a partner with Atlas Property Group, which owns the eightstory building at 22 Franklin St. “He’s an artist who came to us. … One condition was that we would have no creative control, and we were fine with that because he was a local artist with a good reputation.”
The group has made some inkind donations to BiP throughout the course of the project, including renting out the parking spaces directly below the mural to help clear work space. They still don’t know the direction the mural will take over the next two months.
In his post about the mural, the artist worried over what impact the work might have on his relationship with the city. “I’m aware the city trusts me in a special way, I don’t want to play with that,” he wrote. “But this position as some kind of art influence doesn’t really mean a thing if I can’t paint what’s real.”
San Francisco Arts Commission spokeswoman Kate Patterson said the commission has no jurisdiction over public art it doesn’t fund or solicit, and was in no position to comment on a privately funded mural.
The San Francisco Police Department declined to comment directly on the piece, other than to release a short statement that read, in part, “The men and women of the San Francisco Police Department are proud to serve our diverse city . ... We are committed to providing safety with respect to everyone who lives in, works in or visits San Francisco.”
Little is known about the artist. BiP doesn’t grant interviews or reveal his identity, though his producer, Michael Atto, provided some additional comments from the muralist over email.
“On the one hand, I’m so thankful for the police who put their lives on the line to protect our communities,” the artist said in the statement to The Chronicle. “SF police in particular deal with truly difficult and remarkable situations every day, and I think that should be recognized and applauded for that. And yet on the other hand we have to be able to have a discussion about police brutality. They have to be able to see this in our art. I have to be able to protest that or my position in ‘Art’ is really a joke.”
BiP also wrote that he had faith that the police department would be able to see the “love and humor in this work.”
Whatever the wider reaction, as the mural nears completion, one thing is certain: The piece will be gone within a year, covered behind another building under development. BiP wrote on Instagram that he knew this was the case before he started.
This is BiP’s fifth largescale work in San Francisco. The other four are full of meaning but far less adversarial, such as “No Ceiling,” a mural at Fourth and Mission streets that depicts a smiling young girl flexing an oversized bicep tattooed with local area codes 415 and 510. His work has appeared both nationally and internationally.
When BiP began this latest project eight weeks ago, he posted about it on Instagram, noting that he had, in recent years, achieved a significant level of artistic success. “i promised myself if i ever found myself in this position, i would be a good force in the art community and use my earnings to finance public projects that don’t usually happen without corporate branding.”
Over the phone, Hariri was firm that the property group had no intention of interfering with the mural as it nears completion.
“We don’t plan to censor him or dictate how this goes,” he said. “Morally and ethically wouldn’t be right for us.” Neither do they, he continued, “want to protest the police department or protest all American police.”
Instead, Hariri said, they hope the mural can lead to a wider dialogue. “All in all, I just hope it’s a productive, San Franciscostyle conversation.”