Newtown mural painted over for Hollywood movie replaced again overnight

THE director of Mother is ‘embarrassed and furious’ over the loss of a popular Newtown mural after it was painted over by an advertising agency to promote the film starring Jennifer Lawrence.

The side of the building that had the popular mural ‘It’s Like a Jungle Sometimes’ that was replaced with a controversial mural painted over in Newtown.

THE director of Hollywood film Mother has apologised for desecration of the popular Newtown mural ‘it’s like a jungle sometimes’ which was painted over by advertising agency Apparition Media with a mural promoting the horror film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Badem.

Darren Aronofsky took to Twitter to say the ad agency had broken the number one graffiti rule, adding that he was ‘embarrassed and furious’ also apologising to Newtown artist Colin Bebe who painted the mural a decade ago on the side of a terrace house on Enmore Rd and offered to pay for the original mural to be painted again.

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong also blasted the Melbourne-based agency yesterday contacting them directly.

Darren Aronofsky at the French premiere of Mother earlier this month. Picture: Getty

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong Headshot.

just read of ad agency in sydney breaking #1 graffiti rule. i'm embarrassed & furious. apologies to Bebe & I'll pay to replace piece.

— darren aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) September 7, 2017

Residents were outraged that this mural replaced the ‘It’s Like a Jungle Sometimes’ street art mural on the side of a Newtown building on Enmore Road. Picture: John Apppleyard

After a furious community backlash, and being contacted by Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong, Apparition Media painted over the Mother mural last night turning the terrace wall pale blue with white writing promoting Lifeline — a national charity that provides anyone experiencing a personal crisis with access to 24 hour support and suicide prevention services.

How the wall looked this morning. Picture: Nicholas Eagar

The iconic public mural — It’s like a jungle sometimes — had been a popular sight in the inner city Sydney suburb and appalled residents took to Facebook and Twitter to call out Apparition Media for desecrating it with an ad for the film.

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong updated the community on Facebook yesterday after contacting the agency.

Ms Leong posted to Facebook: “I have just spoken to someone at Apparition Media (the PR company that painted over our jungle mural) and made it clear that their apology for painting over this mural can’t be taken seriously while they continue to benefit from the ‘advertising’ of their film on the space.

The original mural painted by Newtown artist Colin Bebe.

They have confirmed that at 5am tomorrow morning the advertisement will be gone — and the wall will be painted baby blue with a message saying that the jungle will return — this will be in place until the original artist is able to finalise the design of the replacement jungle mural and it can be painted — likely in the next week or so.

Congrats to everyone for your amazing community response to this outrageous attempt to commercialise something that is so unique and valued by our community — you are an inspiration!”

Early on Thursday, shocked locals defaced the Mother mural within hours with red paint scrawled across it in saying: “F--- off! It really is a jungle sometimes — NO RESPECT!”

It is believed the advertisement was illegally installed on the heritage building, and did not have the approval of Inner West Council.

“Council did not approve this advertisement, and the display of advertisements is generally prohibited in heritage areas such as Newtown and Enmore,” a spokesman said yesterday.

“Council, like many members of the public, was very disappointed to see the iconic It’s like a jungle sometimes artwork painted over and this matter is being investigated by council’s compliance section.

Apparition Media takes commissions from corporations to paint murals promoting consumer brands and Hollywood blockbusters.

They've painted the controversial #Enmore #mural a beautiful sky blue @Sydney_Now @dailytelegraph #Simpsons #Sydney 😂 pic.twitter.com/NMoAWHNQPX

— Nicholas Eagar (@nicholaseagar) September 7, 2017