A vandal who may have a grudge against green energy has “systematically ruined” an Altona political art installation about brown coal mining.
Wild Books Collective (WBC) created the work, Lignite, as part of the Hobsons Bay art in public places program the council hoped would revitalise Altona’s crime-plagued Harrington Square. The installation included window and pavement decals with coal-mining facts and black yarnbombing on trees.
Collective member Stephen Louis said the installation had been repeatedly vandalised throughout September.
“The work is a bit of a political hot potato,” he said. “It’s critical of brown coal as a sustainable energy source, but it’s also recognising that Altona has a history with brown coal and it has social impacts – impacts on indigenous people but also the people who work the mines.”
Louis said the decals were twice sprayed over with black paint.
“We spent a good few hours on our knees scrubbing, using a solvent to get the paint off,” he said.
“A couple of days later, it happened again, but this time it was almost like the paint was poured on with big dollops.”
The decals were cleaned again, but a couple of days later an unknown offender completely removed them. The art collective replaced the decals with spares, but these were also removed.
Yarnbombing on trees in the square, comprising numerous black squares knitted by individuals and community groups over a fortnight, were completely torn down.
A Caucasian man in his late 20s or 30s, with a moustache, was captured on CCTV in the act of spraypainting.
“I think it’s someone who has a really angry opposing view to what we’re saying,” Mr Louis said.
“Just as there are people who are pushing for a change as far as fossil fuel use goes, there are people who see it as like, ‘but what about the jobs’ or ‘my dad worked in the field’.”
