An advertising agency based in Melbourne has apologised for painting over an iconic mural in Newtown, and promised to work with the original artist to restore it.
The iconic ‘It’s Like A Jungle Sometimes‘ mural, by artist Colin Bebe, has been happily part of the Inner West backdrop for years.
But last week, ad agency Apparition Media, which specialises in murals, painted over the wall to put up a mural for ‘mother!‘, Darren Aronofsky’s latest psychological thriller with Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem.
Locals were furious that the mural was painted over for commercial reasons, and it was defaced within hours.
So #mothermovie painted over a longstanding mural in Newtown to spruik their movie without approval. Residents are not amused. (via FB) pic.twitter.com/QLcb5OGlYC
— David Olsen (@DDsD) September 5, 2017
It was also painted over without council permission. The Inner West Council commented on Apparition Media’s Instagram post to say that the matter was being investigated. (PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to the council to confirm.)
Apparition Media has now apologised for the fuck-up, and agreed to work with Bebe to restore the artwork to its original form, covering all costs, as well as raise money for a local charity to raise awareness of youth suicide.
The Facebook post read:
Let’s just start by saying we’re sorry to you all and you’ve been heard loud and clear. We managed to get in touch with the original designer/artist and he is a ripping bloke. He told us the history of the mural and what it represents. After chatting at lengths about this, and our common journey of losing someone to suicide, he has asked that we collaborate on the new mural and become part of the story. It shows the mark of the man that despite us painting over the mural without approaching him first and despite the public outcry from you all, he wants our team member to tell the story of her brother within the new artwork – in his words “This is all just another chapter in the story of this mural.
We have expressed our regret for painting over it and apologised for our ignorance. We are going to work together to restore the original mural in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, he has asked that we finish our mural. He is supportive of what we do and understands that we are a collective of sign writers who employ artists to do what they love doing – we are not a faceless corporate entity. After we complete the final stage of this mural, we are going to restore the original mural in collaboration with the artist and we have agreed to cover all costs, assist him in painting it and get the story of the mural out there to as many people as we can. We are also going to use this opportunity to raise money for a local charity of the artist’s choice to raise awareness around youth suicide.
Again, we apologise to the Newtown community for painting over this much loved mural, hopefully something good will come out of all of this.
Before posting this, we gained approval for the artist to do so.
A spokesperson from Apparition Media also told P.TV that they didn’t realise the significance of the mural before choosing it as a site.
“We source the walls to place murals for our clients,” he said. “In this case we identified the wall and thought it would work not realising the significance of the existing mural to the local community, an honest mistake and one we are rectifying.”
They plan to collect donations for local charities while helping repaint the original mural.
Community responses have been mixed to the apology. “I think it’s great that you have acknowledged it and are now working with the original artist to make the situation better,” said one Facebook commenter.
“Too little, too late,” said another. “And you’re going to finish the mural!? Obviously you have no regard for the community’s opinion and no respect for the area. GTFO.”
You can read the full Facebook post below.
UPDATE: The lead image used was originally credit to a Redditor; it has since been amended to reflect that the image came from Newtown Graffiti Map.
