There is a spray paint war going on in my neighborhood. The battleground is a series of murals that have been painted by local artists. These are put on the walls of all the overpasses of the Union Pacific train line. In some ways, it’s an attempt to beautify crumbling infrastructure. The American Bridge Company built the railroad overpasses in 1902. On one hand, it is a salute to great construction, considering that the bridges are still standing after over a century of shaking under powerful locomotives and train cars. On the other hand, it is a testimonial to risk-taking: the crumbling base of the 122-year-old concrete is only matched by the rusted-out iron of the bridge it is supposed to hold up.
I am sure the Union Pacific is pushing the envelope when it comes to these myriad bridges. My guess is that one catastrophe and the subsequent lawsuits will eventually bring about change. For now, they stand, are patched from time to time, but for the most part is left to crumble and rust.
Some pretty murals have been painted in a way to put a band-aid on some urban blight. The murals age as well, and yet in my neighborhood there are some popular murals that continue to get repainted and touched up. They have become urban icons, part of the identity of the small part of Rogers Park we live in.
One such mural has a “you are beautiful” theme to it, with a bunch of painted “you are beautiful” logos in various colors and directions. It is the unofficial motto of Rogers Park. People will stop to have their picture taken in front of that particular mural. Film crews have made it a backdrop for videos. As an artist, this mural doesn’t do too much for me, but still, it is art, and someone took a lot of time and effort to make a tiny part of our neighborhood a better place.
The war between Israel and Hamas has brought out a spray-painter. Over the last month, this spray-painter has put up slogans on all the murals in the neighborhood. That the spray-painter feels compelled to make a political statement is one thing: we need to honor free speech. Because of that, there are many avenues to present free speech in our world.
But here the protestor has decided to deface art, and I am dubious if it is in the name of making a political point.
When the murals are retouched, the spray-painter comes around again, ready to deface the murals in what is a battle of wills with the artists who maintain the murals. In the meantime, any pleasure derived from the murals has been compromised. A sense of community has been challenged. Urban blight made better by the artists has been re-blighted by some self-chosen sloganeer. In the end, no one is swayed, everyone is irritated.
As Aine said to me, “I don’t like the spray painting over the art, because the art makes me feel better. Makes me feel that people love me. But the person who spray painted over the art takes that away. He didn’t have permission to do that and people had worked a long time to make the art.” For a nine-year old, she has the right idea.
Which brings me to my point: defacing art in the name of anything is a bad idea, even if it is a mural on a crumbling underpass. How sad that this person has decided to hurt people in the name of people being hurt? There are many more ways to protest, to help change the world that involve bringing people together. To make change you need either consensus or catastrophe, and like the crumbling bridges that too, will come down to hurting people.
It is ludicrous to compare a war and the horrible current relationship of Israelis and Palestinians to a vandalized bridge mural, however, the underlying connection is there. Someone has decided they matter more than a lot of other people and has acted accordingly. That decision is the root cause of the war in Gaza, the war in Ukraine and pretty much any other evil that the world is contending with today.
Eventually, it will get cold. I predict the spray-painting will cease. Because, like all sunshine-patriots, the real zeal here isn’t about any conflict, but that more insidious and ugly part of our human self. “I matter more.” If only we can free ourselves of that.
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