Artwork Dedicated To Charleston Nine Vandalized

Mural at the Redux Comtemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC vandalized.

I have never been a big fan of taggers or their so-called "artwork" in public places. 

Now I am certain there are plenty of people who tag bare walls on the sides of businesses, train cars, bridges and overpasses who will argue strongly in favor of their alleged artwork. I won't go into those reasons here, except to tell y'all that there is nothing good about tagging private or public property without the express permission of the owner of said property. That is the line between "art" and vandalism folks. 

On the evening of Saturday, August 21st and early morning of Sunday, August 22nd of this year, a mural painted on the front and side of the Redux Contemporary Arts Center on 136 St. Philip Street in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, was vandalized by taggers. 

The mural is an amazing piece of artwork by local South Carolina artist Tripp Derrick Barnes painted in honor of the Charleston Nine. Earlier this summer, a team of artists painted the mural in just over two weeks. Unveiled on May 13th of this year to applause, the beautifully-made art piece is made up of multi-colors features the likeness of former SC State Senator and Reverend Clementa Pinckney who was brutally murdered by white supremacist Dylann Roof during the infamous Charleston Massacre at Emanuel AME Church on Wednesday, June 17, 2015. The mural covers about 1,700 square feet. When he painted it, Barnes said it was the largest mural project he had ever done.

The artwork includes the famous nine doves work commemorating the Charleston Nine and a quote from the pastor: 

"Across The South, We Have A Deep Appreciation Of History - We Haven't Always Had A Deep Appreciation Of Each Other's History."  

The amazing mural to the Charleston Nine at the Redux Contemporary Arts Center
in Charleston, SC.
The center is located on 136 St. Philip Street, several blocks away from Emanuel AME Church.

It should be noted that as SC Senator, Pinckney was one of the men who voted to include the Confederate battle flag ANV pattern at the monument honoring the Confederate soldiers from South Carolina who died in the War Between The States (1861 - 1865) located on the south side of the SC State Capitol grounds. The flag was removed several weeks after the shooting after a great deal of backroom deals by a corrupt SC Legislature, public pressure by Establishment reactionaries, and a politically ambitious governor all advancing a wrong-thinking, pro-white supremacist view of the flag - ironically the same view shared by Pinckney's murderer, but one that is largely rejected by most Confederate descendants and Reverend Pinckney himself. 

But this isn't about that particular fight, though the words on the mural do touch on how this act of vandalism and the removal of that flag share a common link - the lack of appreciation for our shared Southern heritage and history. 

Pictures posted by the center shows words and images covering the edge of the art piece. Thankfully only one part of the artwork was defaced in the left side, rather than the whole mural itself.

Is this supposed to be Ed from Ed, Edd, and Eddie? And what is up with the peace symbol covering the Star of David on his forehead? I only ask because I assume these taggers had some meaning behind their "artwork" and I am wondering if a hate crime could have been committed.
I don't know, could also be the Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas when he had that "wonderful, awful idea"....you know, like the awful idea these bozos had when they decided to tag this building and mess up a nice piece of actual artwork.

WTF?! GOKU! Why did they put him on there?!

Two of the taggers were caught on Sunday morning by the executive director of Redux, Miss Stacy Huggins.  

"I was so angry that I was physically shaking, particularly because the mural is so special," Huggins said."I don't think that they realized the gravity of what they were doing."

Huggins said the act was so personal because it's a betrayal of the bigger picture in the art world. "I'm so upset that somebody would come and ruin the work of dozens of artists who put hundreds of hours into creating a mural dedicated to Clementa Pinckney and Mother Emanuel tragedy," she said. "This is a nonprofit. We exist to serve our community and give back to our community. To have our building, our home disrespected like that was so distressing."

Charleston police were called and a compromise was reached: The gallery would not press charges if the two men agreed to repaint the wall the appropriate color in a reasonable amount of time. An incident report confirmed the deal. Both are reported to have pledged to taken responsibility for their actions and others who damaged the mural, implying more than just a few people were involved; and pledged to take down the graffiti at a later time. Neither of the taggers were publicly identified.

"Event attendees somehow believed that it was okay to deface our building and infringe on the hard work of a group of artists who volunteered long hours to paint our mural," officials at the art center said. "We are saddened and outraged, and most of all disappointed that a few people mad bad decisions and destroyed a beautiful work of art."

"What I don’t understand is why they would deface a mural that was a tribute to the nine victims who died in this church," Barnes the mural's artist said. 

Meanwhile, the long-term fate of the mural is unknown. The mural is on private property, not public property, and Redux is moving to Upper King Street next year. I personally pray for the site once nobody is there to watch over it.

Now for my two cents.

My grandmother once told me a little rhyme about graffiti tags, particularly those that included names painted on walls, or scratched onto benches and tables in public parks: "Fools names, like fool's faces, are often seen in public places."

Painting over another artist's work is not only wrong, it is deeply disrespectful. This blogger is unaware if the vandals understood the significance of the mural they were defacing. If they did and thought that adding their names, slogans, and a few cartoon character images would "improve" on the mural, they were dead wrong. 

The people in charge of Redux showed a great deal of tolerance in this case, likely because the vandals were young. Also probably likely because they couldn't be made a proper public example out of for one reason or another - I leave y'all to guess at what those could be. In any case, the hoodlums got off lucky. 

Yet this goes to the wonderful example and words painted on the meaningful mural itself by Reverend Pinckney, words of tolerance towards the our shared Southern history. 

All too often we as a Southern people are divided between class and race mostly because of many outside influences and just as often some home-grown ones that have been allowed to fester beneath our more honorable character. 

As Southerners we honor and remember history, both the good and the bad. Or both in most cases. The very notion that Southern history - or any history for that matter - having an entirely clear-cut distinction of good and bad is largely a fallacy. Obviously how one chooses to regard one part of that long history as opposed to others stems from an individual's point of view and perspectives based on life experiences. 

This does not make someone who disagrees with your entirely wrong, nor does it make someone narrow-minded if they do not know this. Ignorance comes from a lack of understanding. Narrow-mindedness and prejudice comes from an unwillingness to try and understand all perspectives and instead falling back on the parts one choose to glorify, or promote for their own selfist purposes.

The names of the Charleston Nine tagged dishonorably as graffiti on a Confederate Soldiers' Monument in Charlotte, NC in the fall of 2015. This act dishonored both the soldiers of the South and the victims of a senseless slaughter - done by people who share the same hateful view of the South's history as the murderer of the Mother Emanuel AME victims.

To me hate and ignorance of our shared history are prejudice no matter where it is directed, no matter what justification is used, or righteous indignation the antagonist claims to have. Without a sense of honor, not to mention good old Southern Fried Common Sense, there is no moral high ground.