“This is disgusting”: Mural for murdered women defaced with graffiti
A street artist has been captured painting over a mural depicting the names and photos of women murdered across Australia in acts of domestic violence.
The mural, plastered on Melbourne’s famous Hosier Lane, depicts some of the almost 80 women killed since the start of 2023, and the locations they died around Australia.
The mural also shows the alarming statistics of domestic violence across Australia in data compiled by The RED HEART Campaign - an ongoing memorial project dedicated to tracking the known women and children killed in acts of gendered violence.
The mural was painted in the lane on International Women’s Day (March 8th), and was defaced just 10 days later.
An unknown street artist was captured on video spray painting over the women’s faces, with the words “13 WOLF 69” covering most of the mural, as the beginning of a large orange text covering the southeast corner of the map.
When murdered women are erased for the second time! #femicide #shematters pic.twitter.com/TYpLQFmpCx
— Sherele Moody (Femicide Researcher) 🌈 (@ShereleMoody) March 18, 2023
The video, posted by the campaign founder Sherele Moody, then pans slowly to capture the artist still spraying the wall with orange paint – what seem to be the finishing touches to the large piece that stretches for metres toward Flinders Street.
“That’s more important, that’s lovely,” someone can be heard sarcastically saying in the footage.
“That’s not even art!”
Sherele captioned the video as an example of “when murdered women are erased for a second time”.
“The dude could have moved his scribble a few feet and not painted over the faces of murdered women,” she added.
“The Lane is pretty big – there’s room for all of us!”
Supporters of the campaign immediately reacted in disgust to the “selfish, heartless artist”, with many saying the disregard for the mural really “hurts”.
“What the actual f,” one woman wrote.
“This is disgusting. This is about murdered women and a memorial. When did we become so disrespectful.”
While most of the backlash was in support of the advocates, others questioned whether the artist was even aware of what he had done or was partially covering.
Others simply said it was the harsh nature of Melbourne’s internationally renowned street art culture.
Image credits: Twitter