Artist slams for lease sign obstructing Frome Street mural
Adelaide artists and concerned business owners object to a for lease sign covering a part of the 27-year-old Frome Street mural Alien from E-Street Saturn.
Artist Driller Jet Armstrong says he thinks the placement of the sign, which was erected about two weeks ago advertising a retail shop tenancy in Rundle Street, was done “deliberately and spitefully”.
Driller was commissioned by the Adelaide City Council and Rundle Street Traders to paint Alien from E-Street Saturn in 1998, which at the time reworked a prior mural by Sydney artist Carol Ruff and Barbary O’Brien that was created in 1984.
On Sunday, he shared a picture of the sign on his social media accounts saying it was “especially disappointing” and “a sad comment on the festival state”.
“There’s plenty of other places that they could have put the sign,” Driller told CityMag.
“Below the mural, where the artwork ends there’s a section from the ground to about maybe two meters up the mural starts.
“I don’t know why unless it was completely out of spite… I mean that wall is the gateway to the East End.”
There is wall space below the mural on Frome Street. This picture: Helen Karakulak/CityMag
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An Adelaide City Council spokesperson told CityMag they became aware of the sign last week and made immediate contact with the property owner to discuss removing and relocating the sign, which is in the process of occurring.
Because the sign is located on a state heritage-listed building, it requires development approval to be put up.
President of the East End Coordination Group and co-owner of Amalfi restaurant Frank Hannon-Tan says he first noticed the sign the week before the January 26 long weekend.
“That’s on the way to where I parked my car, and I noticed the sign there, and I immediately took out my phone and took a photo of it, because I thought to myself that’s just awful, it’s clearly defacing the art,” Frank says.
“I decided to call the real estate agent myself and I rang them up and said, ‘Hey look, I just wanted to inquire about the for lease sign on the mural on Frome and Rundle and the placement of it.
“The woman who answered the phone said, ‘oh, look that sign is coming down on Tuesday’ meaning Tuesday the 28th after the Australia Day long weekend and I went OK, great, excellent so play on, nothing else to see here.”
The sign is still up as of today.
Frank says he was in touch with the owner of the building, who expressed an unwillingness to move the sign from the Frome Street mural and when he later contacted the real estate to confirm the sign was being taken down, he was told that’s no longer the case.
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“Ultimately, it’s his property and he can do what he likes,” Frank says.
“I do appreciate the rights of the building owner, but at the end of the day, this is a wall that was exposed in 1968 when they widened Frome Street, it used to be a very narrow street, and they knocked down the Tavistock hotel to widen that street and expose that mural.
“Fast forward, that mural has been there in one form or another longer than that wall’s been exposed, and I think it deserves some protection.
“The wall is his property, but the people who move in and out and around the East End on a daily, annually or once-off, if they’re a tourist, that’s their environment too.”
In 1998 Driller enlisted artists David Bromley, Chris Gaston, Brettski, Andrew Parish, Andrew Petusevics and had permission from Barbary O’Brien, one of the creators of the previous work, who also contributed to Alien from E-Street Saturn.
Adelaide artist Driller Jet Armstrong with his iconic Alien from E-Street Saturn mural on the corner of Frome and Rundle streets. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily
In the past five years, Driller has tried to give it a facelift and update the work but has been unsuccessful.
“It’s street art so, you know, in my mind, it shouldn’t be there for 30 years,” Driller says.
“I think street art has a life, some people might not agree with that, some people might say that they want to keep it forever, which, people are entitled to their view, but this is just blatant disrespect of artists and public art generally.
“This is a slap in the face to all artists who create public art, and it’s a slap in the face of the council, it’s a slap in the face of all the artists whose work is on that wall
“It’s an attack on public art in general.”
Commercial SA Real Estate, who is advertising the retail tenancy, was contacted for comment.