Sensitivty Vs Hyper Sensitivity
Street Art Kerfuffle
Walking around is good for the soul and keeps you connected to the world where you live.
I cruise around with a photographer’s eye and look for changes or interesting things in my environment. Street art and bizarre signs and unique people.
Here are a few….
On the 4th of November, just 19 days ago, I was wandering down Carlisle Street in Balaclava and saw that they had done some artwork on the facade of the buildings.
I took the picture because it was something new on the street. I sort of liked the way they painted the face around the windows. The City of Port Philip, the local council, had commissioned well-known artist Mic Porter to do the street art.
You can go to Porter’s Instagram and see that he has been drawing faces like this for many years.
https://www.instagram.com/micporterart/
The area where this artwork was drawn is colloquially called “The Bagel Belt”. The suburbs within this area make up the largest Jewish population in Australia. It’s a vibrant mix of cultures as you wander the streets here.
The Council has now been faced with a multitude of complaints that these artworks can be viewed as anti-Semitic.
The Council chose this artist and I would assume based on the information on the Council website they are well versed in his work. I would also assume that there may be a good number of Jewish people on the Council who approved the work based on the demographic here in Port Philip.
Here is an excerpt from the Council website about the artist:
Porter has become known as the creator of some of Melbourne’s most iconic street art: his clusters of distinctive, large-scale human heads represent some of Melbourne’s most unforgettable imagery.
Mic has lived and worked in the City of Port Phillip his entire life and has been part of the Graffiti and Street Art scene for over two decades and has painted numerous large-scale murals throughout Melbourne and the world, because of his experience in both the contemporary and urban art worlds, he is respected by all for his unique and thought-provoking aesthetic.
Now he is being trolled on his Instagram page because of the work he has been doing for years.
We will never know if this would have happened if we were not living through very highly charged events in the Middle East.
I believe this is a bit of an overreaction.
Below is what has replaced the art on the buildings.
Pretty average in comparison.
I do hope the publicity that surrounds this storm in a teacup enables Mr. Porter to do more work around Melbourne.
Thoughts?
Researcher and executive director of John Curtin Research Centre, Nick Dyrenfurth, shared online that he has "no words" after seeing the mural.
"And if we want to inquire as to the potential motivations of the artist, Mic Porter. He posted this video at the October 29 Melbourne protest," Dyrenfurth shared on his X account on Thursday alongside screenshots from Porter's recent video at a peaceful pro-Palestinian rally.
Talk about coming to conclusions Mr. Dyrenfurth.
Oy Vey.
