Street artist Mr P claims vandalism as workmen paint over his creations
Published: 29 April 2010
by DAN CARRIER
SPECIALLY commissioned public art in Kentish Town has been “vandalised” – by council workers.
Town Hall workmen came at night and roughly painted over two works paid for by shops in the high street.
The owner of a car wash, who did not wish to be named, asked street artist Mr P to brighten up the gates and walls to the entrance opposite the Tube station.
He was shocked to come into work two weeks ago and discover the artwork had been painted over.
“They should not have done it,” he said. “It was beautiful. It brightened things up – people stopped and took photographs of it.”
The second piece removed was commissioned by Michael Ptootch, owner of hairdressers Flaxon Ptootch. He holds art exhibitions and has covered his building in work by Mr P.
He said: “We asked him to do some work on a wall that was getting repeatedly tagged. The roof used to access it was dangerous and it looked terrible, so we put up scaffolding and paid him, as a way of stopping unsightly graffiti.
“The council came in the evening and daubed horrible paint over it. Everyone had closed for the day – if they hadn’t we’d have stopped them vandalising our artwork.”
Mr P, speaking from Amsterdam where he is curating a show of his work, vowed to make good the destruction on his return.
The artist, who grew up in Kentish Town, claimed council staff and police community support officers ordered the car wash to remove the artwork “as they felt it did not look nice”.
He said: “The owner said no, and that he liked it and had it specially done.
“This is basically vandalism. The council are complete hypocrites. It is not their property.”
A council spokesman said: “Graffiti can have a negative effect on the perception of an area. In a routine inspection, we found painting on the side of a building at Gaisford Street and arranged to meet with the occupant, who was happy for the building wall to be cleaned.”
The art on the walls of the car wash was “...regularly tagged with indiscriminate writing and offensive language”, the spokesman added.