sydney street artists destroy mural, stab at council

 

This video depicts five popular street artists - Beastman, Max Berry, Numskull, Phibs and Roach - painting a mural for Scratching the Surface as part of Creative Sydney 2010.

Creative Sydney was a NSW Government and corporate funded creative industry forum held at the Museum of Contemporary Art this month.

The Scratching the Surface website (link) says it featured:

"An installation and live painting event exploring the quality and temporary nature of public art in Sydney."

This makes it clear what these artists painted was public art, not street art. Public art being funded/sanctioned of course. The state government was a major sponsor of the event and would not support vandalism. Graffiti costs the Gov/us over $100 million a year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald (link).

But if you watch the final minute of this video the mural is painted over. This was done by 'council workers', dressed in fluoro vests and mullets, who then stencilled "cleaned by Sydney Council" in the centre of it. These very talented artists defiantly destroyed their mural to 'metaphorically fuck' council for buffing street artworks.

This was ironic, considering the City of Sydney was one of three major Creative Sydney partners.

The Scratching the Surface website also says it was presented by Pedestrian, a pop culture website which recently took a hit at the Acid Midget (link).

This video was generated by We Are The Image Makers. Their site said the point of the mural's destruction was to "make a bold statement about the high quality but temporary nature of public or 'street' art in Sydney."

From what I gather, Creative Sydney was curated to appeal to middle-class Sydneysiders by putting them 'in touch' with art industry experts and cutting-edge artistic trends.