Published
Wed, Apr 26, 2023, 17:35
- The incident remains unsolved, leading local actors to conduct their own investigations.
Murals of house pioneer Frankie Knuckles and late rapper Juice WRLD were intentionally covered in brown paint in Chicago's West Loop neighbourhood on Monday, April 24th.
The murals were part of a street gallery called The B_Line, which spreads across Hubbard Street and an adjacent parking lot. This is the second time a Knuckles mural has been defaced since his death in 2014. The first time was in 2021 as part of a spate of attacks on murals of Black figures.
The latest mural was commissioned by The Frankie Knuckles Foundation in 2018 and unveiled on Frankie Knuckles Day (August 25th). Corey Pane is the artist behind the Juice WRLD mural, which is a homage to his posthumous album, Legends Never Die.
"I'm not sure exactly what happened—we're still trying to figure that out," Pane told Resident Advisor. "But no matter who did this, it's sad to see it go because it meant so much to so many people."
Pane said the mural was on the brink of becoming a Chicago landmark and brought "positive energy" to the area. "I was honoured to see people travel from all over the world just to see it. Art can bring people together in a magical way and murals like this are especially important for the heart and pulse of a city. I'd like to see that energy growing for generations to come, so a rebirth is definitely on the horizon."
According to the street gallery's curator, Levar Hoard, the defacing was "racially motivated." He said CCTV cameras should have recorded the perpetrators, who could face fines of $150,000 for each mural destroyed under the the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.
Cameras at the parking lot point directly at the space where the murals were painted over. Hoard said getting hold of the footage is now the priority. "We have a shortlist of suspects," he said. "Images of the murals in this area went viral on TikTok during the pandemic and now thousands of people a month come to see them."
The suspects, Hoard said, include The Department of Streets and Sanitation, parking lot operators and the owners of the viaduct, Railroad Union Pacific. But according to one report, authorities have both condemned the attack on the murals and denied any involvement.
Parking lot operator Bill Sommerfield "is the only person who is refusing to answer requests for CCTV footage," said Hoard.
Hoard said Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. could also help resolve this. "If he's not involved, he should have no problem requesting footage from Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications [OEMC]–which has access to private security cameras like the ones in the parking lot." (RA has left a message with the alderman's office.)
Some local residents are taking the investigation into their own hands. Moshe Tamssot, administrator of a community Facebook group called True West Loop, has requested the CCTV footage from the OEMC by submitting a Freedom of Information request.
Tamssot, who is sharing updates in the group, said he met with Chicago City officials to find out if their paint matches the one used to cover the murals. While it didn't match the one used to cover the Juice WRLD mural, "there was a direct match with other areas in the Mural Park that were covered up," he said. Tammsot has collected more paint chips for "further analysis."
RA contacted the Chicago Police Department to find out if an investigation into the situation is pending. Sergeant Rocco Alioto said he's "unable to locate any reports for the incidents searching from April 1st, 2023, until today." He added that the Visual Artists Rights Act is a federal law and the department only enforces "Illinois State Law and Chicago municipal ordinances."
We'll report more on this story as it unfolds.