The Chorus box in the centre of Levin with an artwork representing the LGTBQIA+ community has been bombed with grey paint.
The Chorus box in the centre of Levin with an artwork representing the LGTBQIA+ community has been bombed with grey paint.
A graffiti attack on a rainbow fantail artwork in the centre of Levin that celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community has saddened its creator to her core.
Vicky Millman was commissioned to do the artwork in 2021 and had taken the recent bombing of the Chorus box with grey paint to heart.
“I feel a deep sadness all the way to the centre of my soul because I thought the people of Horowhenua were better than this,” Millman said.
Levin artist Vicky Millman stands next to the Chorus box where her mural of a fantail representing the LGBTQIA+ community has been painted over with grey paint.
“I just don’t understand. Why is it that we can’t all just get along? Where is the love?”
Millman said she feared the graffiti attack on her mural was encouraged by recent attacks on artworks that celebrated the LGBTQIA+ community in other parts of the country, such as the paint bombing of a rainbow pedestrian crossing on Karangahape Rd in Auckland.
Auckland man Ford O’Connor, 31, who is married to granddaughter of Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki, appeared in the Auckland District Court in late March and pleaded guilty to vandalising the rainbow pedestrian crossing
O’Connor agreed to pay $16,093 for the cost of repair.
A rainbow crossing on Karangahape Rd in Auckland was painted over with white paint. Photo / John Nottage / Reddit
Tamaki publicly stated his support for O’Connor and saw it as a “political protest against the excessive rainbow-washing that is occurring across New Zealand right now, at the expense of our taxpayers and our ratepayers”.
“This rainbow-washing has gone too far. The over-promotion and protection of this perversion is not right,” Tamaki was quoted as saying.
Millman said comments such as those of Tamaki caused hurt and division in the LGBTQIA+ community.
“Of course, that’s where they have got this idea from,” she said.
“Just leave us alone. Let us be. All religion has love at the heart, so why lose the plot?”
Chorus initially trialled placing artwork on the cabinets in Auckland in 2010 to test if the frequency of tagging decreased. It proved so successful the programme was rolled out nationwide at a current rate of 170 a year.
Locally, Horowhenua District Council provided each artist with road cones and anti-graffiti coating to help protect and remove any unauthorised labelling on the boxes.
In the past year, five cabinets had been painted with artwork in areas including Foxton, Levin, Hōkio Beach and Manakau.
Levin's Arty Vicky was also commissioned in 2022 to do the Chorus box mural "Skate the Rainbow".
The council worked with Chorus to decide on the successful artists, with Chorus having final approval of the design. Depending on the size of the cabinet, artists received between $400 and $1500 for their work.
Millman submitted her work and was commissioned by Chorus in 2021 to do the box mural, which featured six different colours in the fantail and a colourful backdrop that celebrates that people can feel free to identify the myriad of sexuality.
As the box had been protected by graffiti guard, the grey paint should be able to be removed without affecting her original work.
