The metal sculpture on Jacka Boulevard in St Kilda was sawn off at the ankles about 3.30am Thursday, with vandals also spray-painting “the colony will fall” on the statue’s granite plinth.
I think the whole thing as is (vandalised and all) should be put in a museum. History is not linear or static. We actively create and engage in history each day. Vandalising and pulling down these statues is not erasing history but rather contributing to it. If the statue gets cleaned and fixed then that is arguably an act of historical erasure.
Shame the age didn’t give this much attention to the regular defacement of the gorgeous mural just behind this statue that some knob kept painting bible verses over last year.
It was a gorgeous with bright oranges and yellows, filled with faces of people and hounds in a grotesque style. Whoever the vandal was took particular offence to the eyes and teeth, because that’s what they covered in white roller. Unfortunately council has now painted the whole thing over with grey.
So, the artist ‘mic’ wanted someone to religiously challenge his work.
I don’t mind that as art goes. Bit sensationalist. But i hope the artist didn’t get paid a heap of money to beautify a grey cement wall only for the place to end up with a grey cement wall.
Clean up any rough/sharp edges on the ankles, put a splash of something on the paint to preserve it and leave it there for (hopefully) generations to come.
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