A new mural went up on the corner of Haight and Buchanan this week, and in the span of two days, it managed to get tagged, repainted, re-tagged, and repainted. And the taggers had a message.
On Monday afternoon, Haighteration reader Shana R. tipped us to the mural being painted on “the side of building by the bus stop that’s constantly being tagged.” Shana was thrilled about it, but apparently at least one other person wasn’t. By Monday night, the mural had already been tagged.
On Tuesday, the mural was repainted. That’s when we stopped by and snapped this pic:
The artists added a very polite, reasonable request directed at any potential taggers: “MURAL PROJECT in Progress / PLEASE RESPECT / IF INTERESTED IN PAINTING SAT, MARCH 12 AT 12PM.”
So, that kinda didn’t work.
As Shana puts it, “Tuesday night it was heavily tagged with the taggers cursing yuppies and murals.”
(Aside: does this mural look like the work of “yuppies” to you?)
As of this morning, the mural has been re-re-painted, with some playful figures added, and some extra pleading — like this fellow’s desperate thought bubble: “PAINT ME! don’t tag ME!”
We’ll see how long this latest repainting lasts.
If you’re interested in helping to paint the mural, swing by on Saturday at noon for the community painting day.
In the meantime, though, how do we feel about this? Are you outraged that public art in our neighborhood is once again being defaced, as it has been recently with the other Lower Haight mural a block away? Or do taggers have just as much right to leave their mark on a wall as mural artists do?
Hefty questions for a Thursday, folks. What do you think?