It seemed like such a short time ago that Melbourne was bestowed with a massive mural depicting the Western Bulldogs mascot cocking its leg on controversial fear-machine Pauline Hanson – and that’s because it was. The thing only popped up on Friday.
That was still long enough for people to get real mad about Van T Rudd’s piece, and a spokesperson for the City of Maribyrnong said it was compelled to paint (half) the thing over after receiving a torrent of complaints.
In response to that whirlwind of painting and re-painting, PEDESTRIAN.TV reached out to Rudd to get his take.
Rudd said he wasn’t surprised the piece had been amended, as supporters “do see Hanson as an idol, so it’s like pissing on an idol.”
But he was “shocked it had happened so quickly, and I guess at how neat it was, and that the dog had been left there.”
FWIW, the council said the dog was left there to preserve the integrity of artwork as much as possible and that “the decision is in no way a political statement.” Animals pissing? Fine. Animals pissing on the depiction of a political figure? Not fine.
A subsequent statement from the council says “besides, Footscray is home to the Bulldogs!” Better off nixing the One Nation leader than both of the mural’s figures, then.
The artist had “suspected it was not actually Hanson supporters” themselves who had painted over the mural due to how professionally Hanson’s face had been covered, but speculated it was “maybe Hanson supporters indirectly through the local council.”
“I’m not surprised die-hard Pauline Hanson supporters, the fascists, the far-right would react the way they did,” Rudd said. “I know they’re not a massive group out there,” he continued, “but they do tend to flood social media.”
Despite the swift reaction from the council to the piece, which had been painted with the building owner’s consent, Rudd said he’d be open to creating similar artworks in the future.
Photo: Van T Rudd / Facebook.
