Update 24 June 2009: I should have mentioned this before but I spoke with Deb today and she asked me to update this post to say that this work was fixed very quickly! So if you’re looking at the Wizards mural on Rose St it is as good as new.
I’m beginning to see a pattern in art criticism focused on the work of street artist Deb and I’m not happy about it. First came the skank comment on her commissioned work for Brunswick St fashion shop IDS. Then came the cryptic comment about Deb on another of my posts about her work. Then came the rather cleverer ‘sold’ label attached to her feline figure on Rose St, which at least make a coherent statement. These are benign compared to the mess someone has made to the character she painted on the large mural next to the Rose St Markets.
In defacing only Deb’s contribution to this group produced mural based on characters from the animated film Wizards, the criticism seems to be directly at her as an individual rather than the quality of this work in general. Given that the Melbourne street art scene seems significantly male dominated, and Deb is a high profile woman artist, I see a sexist element to this. The most boring thing about this stupidity is the mentality of the critic.
Nearby, on a poster advertising an alcoholic drink on a phone box outside the Nunnery backpackers on Nicholson St, is the work of a similarly irrelevant sexist moron. Perhaps it’s the same one?
29 January 2009 at 1:49 am
Unlikely to be the same one. It’s shocking, I know, but there is more than one sexist moron out there.
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29 January 2009 at 9:44 am
It just makes them look like losers! Street art ads to the general vibe of the community and it sux when someone draws ugly shit on the walls like that. Poo to them!
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29 January 2009 at 3:10 pm
First time I’ve seen or heard of this work, and I have to agree – it IS a bit boring. Fafi and Miss Van have been there too many times for this to be considered original/not boring…
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29 January 2009 at 5:12 pm
I take a different reading of the Midori defacement. I think the graffiti is a critique of the way women are typically portrayed in advertising.
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19 February 2009 at 12:23 am
I think there are different ways to see the Midori ad, but the mural is a group work based on a film – it succeeds or fails based on whether it works as a whole, so trashing only one artist’s contribution to it seems to imply a critique of that artist, not the mural in general.
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17 May 2009 at 10:40 am
This particular mural was of a fairy from the 1970s movie the wizards, and it was commishioned by the rose street artist market. The artist on the wall were given different charectimers to paint, and images to look at. This is. Not even 1 of debs origional charectors, she was asked to paint this fairy. People love so much to get involved and leave comments, but you should really do your reseach and find out what’s really going on. If any 1 thinks the charecter is boring. Well you should have told it to the guy that created the movie the wizards. I love debs work, her ideas are origional and she has a great painting technique. Have a look at her flickr. http://www.flickr.com/iheartdeb
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17 May 2009 at 10:47 am
Yes, we covered the film origins in the first post about the mural. You seem to misunderstand the entire point of the article, because I am also an admirer of Deb’s work and am analysing the criticism, not agreeing with it.
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8 July 2010 at 8:00 pm
I agree with Mysterbey here. So much so I find it bizarre that you would link these two “defacements” in any way. That comment across the Midori advertisement is , to me , definately a dig at the use of a “babe” to sell alcohol. While it may be a bit sad to see deb be the focus of a seemingly personal attack due to a possible resentment of deb’s works local popularity – all power to the ‘defacer’ of Midori adds. No idea if you’ve been around these streets long enough to remember the 1970′s BUGA UP vigilantes and the tremendous things they did Brian “fitzroyalty” whatsiface but I welcome the defacement of advertising of anything as shit as smokes or booze especially where the explotation of a babe is the selling tool.
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