This wall looked better with "graffiti"

Stark, uninspiring and typical. Toronto under the Ford brothers.

I agree. The content of the mural aside the cleanup is horrendous. However, when I first saw this mural I thought that it was way more thought provoking than a concrete wall. The scary thought for me is that this concrete wall symbolizes the legacy of Rob Ford the mayor.

If it were some gang graffiti, I would have no problem with them removing that garbage, but that's not graffiti. Murals like that give regional areas in the city character. What do we have now? Some ugly patches on the walls trying to cover it up. This is shameful.

Brilliant. That's spot on!

This is Toronto and we shouldn't be surprised.

Now we have something to match the ugly pot holes.

I think it looks better without the graffiti.

Why should we be forced to look at someones shit everyday?

This clearly shows Rob Ford's dislike for math.

If you can't tell the difference between a commissioned work of art and a bunch of ugly tags, then maybe you need to get your eyesight checked

Awesome, now we have a blank canvas.

Who's up next?

Look...I think the cleanup job is crap...would rather it wasn't touched...but you can't commission artists to paint on walls you have no rights to paint.

Am certain you'd be pissed if you came home and I'd done your walls and my defense was "it was commissioned".

So... the city can't commission a mural on city property?

Alex:

Uhhh, this was a commissioned piece.

The city hired the guy to paint it.

So I have no idea what you're blathering on about.

If the wall had been prepared with a base colour along its length, and a sign affixed, maybe it wouldn't have been seen as graffiti. Instead it just probably looked like a Banksy knock-off (sorry, homage) by a local with time on his/her hands. As for the figure's resemblance to Harper - a dull looking male with a bad haircut - yeah I can see where they were going with that.

There are two pieces. The first is on the North wall and it was commissioned and paid for by the city. This piece was on the South wall. Giambrone encouraged hime to apply for a commission for a mural on the South wall but the city says that it did not commission that piece. The commissioned piece on the North wall was left untouched.

That's what the City spokesperson says. Giambrone and the artist, on the other hand, say that he received an additional allotment of funds to do the piece on the south side of the street.

Having talked to the artist, I can confirm that he in fact acquired the permits on his own for the north wall, at his own expense, and was invited by the councillor to do the south wall at the City's expense due the positive response to his work.

Why should the public pay for someone's personal political rant?

Mr. Palacio,

I live at the corner of Davenport and Lansdowne, and I greatly appreciate your work in our up and coming ward.

The dog park in Earlscourt Park is a wonderful addition to the area, and has created a real sense of community. I would have preferred a nice large green space rather than the proposed soccer pitch on the west side of the park, but we can’t win all our battles.

However, can you please explain to me how, in an area that is quickly becoming a hub for young artistic minded people, who are not only renting in the area, but also making long term investments in the area, this could have happened:

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1000475--artist-says-city-erased-mural-it-paid-him-to-paint


I pass (I supposed passed) this mural daily and am livid that it has been painted over. These murals are part of our urban landscape, and add to the attraction and diversity of the area. We are a walking culture, a biking culture, and we look to our surroundings to stimulate our imaginations. There is nothing inspiring about the white wash wall (underpass on Lansdowne north of Dupont). It is unsightly and bland.

Tagging should be covered, art should not, and art is often driven by political motives. Could you imagine if Banksy’s art, one of the UK’s most celebrated artists, whose canvas of choice is a brick wall, was covered because it has political undertones? Every single mural he has ever created would have to be painted over.


My toddler learned how to say both dog and bird at Caledonia and Davenport underpass. I sure hope they aren’t next on the white washing list.

Stephen Harper only wishes he could look as good as the now gone mural fellow.

Not to mention that when there is something that is clearly a mural on the other side of the street on the underpass cement you think someone would say "hey, maybe this is a mural too!"

Why does every right leaning moron start their moaning idiotic comments with, "as a taxpayer..."

I'm sorry, is there anyone who isn't a taxpayer?

That is a bogus argument. Putting up a mural doesn't prevent taggers. The north mural is covered in tags and you can clearly see tags in two of the above pictures of the south mural, even before it was finished.

Of course, you know this means war.

Graffiti is vandalism.Art is a picture of a realestate agent. Got it? Good.

So the fact that it was "commissioned" makes it "both ridiculous and sad that it's been destroyed"? I think that makes it a waste of Gov. money. What's "ridiculous and sad" is that art is being destroyed, regardless of whether the artist was paid $2000 or did it out of their own desire to create.

As Torontonians, we should be pissed. That mural was awesome and every time I passed by, it reminded me why I love this city for a number of reasons I won't get into.

Now, it just looks like crap. At least half remains untouched (closer to the green storage company's property, their Art Starts mural remains). Still, it looks like crap. Fuck you, Rob Ford, you're an idiot.

the 'graffiti' on the wall before was artistic. looks terrible now, like the rest of concrete city. toronto is actually a fucking dump. forget any sort of creativity going into the city

But aren't you a taxpaper if you buy stuff? Please correct me if I'm wrong. And that's not sarcasm.

Jesus the city never ceases to amaze me with their ridiculous bullshit. Grow up Ford!! murals make our concrete jungle beautiful and interesting and only boost communities and tourism. poorly primed cement is fascist and BORING!!!

wanna talk about stopping the gravy train - Stop erasing commissioned murals.

There is only one way to go about this:

Every talented graffiti artist in the city must get out, and put their art back on the walls of Toronto!

I'm not an artist, I don't care about graffiti, but I'm much more proud of MY city with some sort of flair and colour than drab patched concrete.

Fight the fight, graffiti soldiers!

You can have your city anyway you want as long as it's drab, dull, and boring.

It's a shame this was removed. I hope something replaces it and can avoid the Ford's dislike of art and anything they can't understand.

This mural must come back. It was amazing. Ford is dead weight on this city, reworking what works in Toronto in the image of the 905 wasteland.

This strategy is pretty typical o the Ford Bros approach. They tend to ignore reality while assuming a bull-headed, 'force the issue' approach will work because, in their minds they are right and everyone else can go to hell.

However, the reality they are ignoring is that the most effective, although not fool-proof, plan to prevent unsightly graffiti is through the development of public art that people enjoy. As much as I wouldn't be surprised, I doubt it is Doug Ford's intention to be anti-art, as opposed to anti-graf. Theyve effectively created a blank canvas for the "gang" graffiti writetrs in Toronto that will be hit up within days, I have no doubt. (The graf writers throughout downtown are not in gangs, thats just a notion that's been carried over from the American origins of graffiti in NY and LA).

The bottom line is that the Ford administration is punctuated regularly with a (willing) lack of understanding of issues they are attempting to address. Well see how far they get with that approach.

hoping...
inclusion of higher art/culture...
neu pictures, new city

Yes, the war on walls is over!

This whole thing was a mistake from all sides.

Joel THOUGHT he had permission but didnt. Honest mistake.

The city cleaned it without doing a double check with the Councillors office. Mistake.

The money came from the city but not officially directed/permitted in that location. Mistake that led to confusion.

It may be ard to believe in this "its always somebodys fault or agenda" world we now live in but in this case it was a series of mistakes that compounded each other.

Suck it rob, it's not anyones fault but your own if you can't appreciate art.Good job you've just given me something to write about... On that very wall of course!

Esta variante no me conviene.
http://www.shampes.com/

migel