A Fitzroy mural depicting a woman in bondage has been defaced almost as soon as it became embroiled in controversy, prompting frustration from onlookers who travelled to admire it.
The 15-metre wide work, on a building in a quiet bluestone laneway, became the subject of outrage when activist group Collective Shout started a campaign to have it removed and argued it glamorised violence against women.
The mural by street LA-based street artist Lauren YS titled Kinbakubi has been defaced.Credit: Eddie Jim
The campaign launched on the weekend and led to Yarra City Council being flooded with more than 1000 complaints, many of which were identical in format. The council has yet to step in, but the majority of the work, by Los Angeles-based artist Lauren YS, has now been painted over with tags.
The mural is on the rear of a nondescript commercial property, where no one answered on Monday.
Lauren YS said they’d named the work Kinbakubi, which translates literally from Japanese to “the beauty of tight binding”.
The artist said they were commissioned to paint a LGBTQI+ inspired piece by the building tenant, who is a photographer who specialises in the queer and sex worker communities, with approval by the property owner.
The mural before it was tagged over.Credit: Instagram
“It is about empowerment and queer selfhood,” Lauren YS said.
On Monday, the handful of people to walk by the laneway during the hour The Age was there had come specifically to see the artwork. Most were saddened to see it ruined.
Lauren YS said the laneway was difficult to find, and the artist believed Melbourne was a progressive city.
“There is a sex shop a few blocks away ... with synthetic boobs in the window. I would not have painted this in a higher trafficked area,” they said.
“This mural shows the least amount of skin of any of my murals. Anyone imposing negative narratives onto it is incorrectly assuming its meaning.”
Some people who came to admire the mural on Monday noted it is just a few minutes’ walk from the Lucrezia & De Sade fetish store and sex shop Passionfruit, both in Brunswick Street.
Magenta Chello, from Ballarat, arrived with her partner to admire the depiction of the bound and gagged woman as active members of the kink community. She said the painting was “absolutely beautiful”.
“I’m so disappointed that somebody has tagged over it given Melbourne does have such a vibrant acceptance of the kink community,” Chello said.
“It upsets me that people have taken away the right to enjoy something that should be there for all.”
She said there was immense misunderstanding of BDSM and kink subcultures.
“They see it as abuse, not that it’s a consensual thing between two people that care about each other,” she said.
“Kids can see worse online. Kids play worse games. If you don’t want your child to see the art, then just don’t walk this side street.”
Alex May, who works nearby, said the outrage was baffling given the artwork’s secluded location.
Warren Smith says he can understand why the mural upset people, but considers it art of high quality.Credit: Eddie Jim
“It’s not public facing so it doesn’t really matter,” May said. “You wouldn’t see this if you’re not walking down here.”
Warren Smith, who has taken up photographing street art around Victoria in retirement, had hoped to see the work before it was defaced. He said he could understand why the painting upset people, but he thought it was a high-quality piece of art.
“It’s a shame I missed it,” Smith said. “Where are the kids who are going to come through here?”
Greville Savage, from Carlton, said it was wrong to destroy art of high skill that brightened the laneway just because someone didn’t agree with it.
Greville Savage, who came to see the mural.Credit: Eddie Jim
“I thought, ‘I’d better get there before the philistines get to it’, but they got there too early,” he said.
A statement on Collective Shout’s social media pages said the art was harmful and dehumanising to women, and adult sexual fetishes should not be imposed on children.
“When abuse and violence against women is framed as sexy, as a ‘kink’, or something we should just be OK with, it sends a message to survivors. It says, ‘Your feelings are wrong. Your pain is wrong’,” wrote campaigns manager Caitlin Roper.
Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly said he’d been surprised by the flurry of complaints about the mural, which he noted mostly came in a highly organised campaign using identical template messaging.
Jolly said very few Yarra residents had contacted him about the work and while there would be diverse opinions, it wasn’t the council’s role to get involved in the debate about the art.
“Fitzroy is Fitzroy because it’s edgy, it’s bohemian, it has a massive art community and LGBTQI+ community,” Jolly said. “I don’t want to turn it into a white bread suburb.”
A Yarra Council spokesman said planning enforcement staff were investigating whether a fine was required, with appropriate action to be taken with the property owner and occupier.
Artwork on the other side of the same laneway, also produced by Lauren YS. Credit: Eddie Jim
“A planning permit is required to paint this building because of the heritage controls that apply. It appears a planning permit has not been applied for,” the spokesman said.
A Melbourne-based street artist, who knows the work of Lauren YS but asked not to be named, said the mural was in line with the rest of their art, which focused on being sex-positive, inclusive and empowering.
The artist was present when Lauren YS was painting the mural, and she recalled passersby positively reacting to it.
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