A Melbourne street artist has been slammed for an ‘utterly offensive’ mural of a Ukrainian and Russian soldier in a tight embrace.
The controversial work ‘Peace before Pieces’ by artist Peter ‘CTO’ Seaton quickly garnered attention after it was unveiled in the city’s south last week.
The artist has been inundated with criticism from the local Ukrainian community who say the mural undermines the brutality of Russia’s invasion of their homeland.
A Melbourne street artist has been slammed for an ‘utterly offensive’ mural of an Ukrainian and Russian soldier in a tight embrace (pictured)
Outraged social media users took to Twitter to join the pile-on after Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko condemned the artwork (pictured)
Outraged social media users took to Twitter to join the pile-on after Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko condemned the artwork.
‘A recently unveiled mural in showing a RU and a UA soldier hugging is utterly offensive to all Ukrainians,’ the ambassador tweeted on Saturday night.
‘The painter has no clue about the RU invasion of Ukraine and it is disappointing to see it done without consulting the Ukrainian community in Melbourne.’
Mr Myroshnychenko said the mural created ‘a sense of a false equivalency between the victim and the aggressor’ and asked it be promptly removed.
Mr Seaton uploaded an Instagram video on Sunday in which he apologised to the Ukrainian people and said his intention had been to promote peace
Art 4 Ukraine Australia said in a statement that it had warned the artist in the consultation stage that the mural would be offensive to Ukrainians.
The group said Mr Seaton decided to proceed with the artwork despite its ‘pleas for reason’ and on Sunday asked the artist to remove the Russian and Ukrainian flags to instead ‘portray an image supporting peace worldwide’.
In response, the artist said he had received some initial positive feedback but that as time went on he was warned the artwork could be negatively perceived.
‘I had to get behind a message of peace, that’s always what I’m about,’ he said.
Mr Seaton uploaded an Instagram video on Sunday in which he apologised to the Ukrainian people and said his intention had been to promote peace.
He thanked people for their ‘interest’ in his work and said he had been trying to portray the message that humans are fundamentally one united group.
‘This work is not to excuse the aggression that the Russians have perpetuated and their horrific crimes against humanity,’ he said.
He said it hurt him on a ‘deep, spiritual level’ that war had been the answer for conflict between Ukraine and Russia and said it had no place in 2022.
‘I’m not affiliated with any Russian people, media, anything,’ he said.
Mr Seaton (pictured) is selling 12 NFTs (non-fungible token tokens) of the artwork which is seen being bombed and then consumed by a mushroom cloud
‘I’m purely someone who maybe has some crack-pot, idealised, spiritual ideas around the unity of people and that we’re all one.
‘If you want to hate me for that, hate me for that, but I will die on my grave not budging from that ideal.’
Mr Seaton is selling 12 NFTs (non-fungible token tokens) of the hugging soldiers artwork, with the online version being bombed and then consumed by a mushroom cloud.
The artworks, which feature audio from a US Nuclear bomb test, can be purchased for 0.08 of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, or about $124.
He said the artwork was originally going to be painted over when the 12 NFTs were sold with the proceeds to be donated to the organisation World Beyond War.
However, social media users have called for the mural’s immediate removal.
‘You could’ve made art to show peace in literally any other way, but you decided to do something that offends millions,’ one wrote.
‘That is truly appalling. Disgraceful. Unbelievable,’ a second said.
‘This makes me feel sick to my stomach just looking at it. This is so incredibly offensive. Wake up Australia!’ a third tweeted.
Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao altered the artwork to instead depict the Russian soldier ‘back-stabbing’ the Ukrainian solider with a blood-soaked knife.
‘Here, I fix the disgraceful and offensive mural in Melbourne with the true face of Russia’s brutality and war crimes from its invasion in Ukraine,’ he wrote.
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