Taylor’s Takes: Providence Pravda ushers in State-Run Art
The saga of the Iryna Zarutska mural is infuriating from every angle because it’s so defensible from every angle.
I’ve heard of state-run news before, but this week the City of Providence introduced us to state-run art.
The saga of the Iryna Zarutska mural is infuriating from every angle because it’s so defensible from every angle.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is smugly hiding behind the excuse of him having been asked his opinion of the in-progress mural on the side of a prominent downtown building.
“I was asked whether or not I thought it should come down,” Smiley told WPRI 12. “And I thought it should.”
I’d love to know who asked the mayor his opinion, and if they asked his opinion of every other mural in Downtown Providence. The cityscape is replete with professionally painted murals, featuring people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds.
But this one mural was enough of an offense to Smiley that he felt compelled to say something about it.
The mural of the slain Ukrainian refugee was being painted on the side of a building that houses a popular gay bar, The Dark Lady. In fact, the bar’s owners commissioned the work, not the City. They decided to initiate the mural and ultimately to take it down. I wish they had shown more backbone before arriving at the latter.
Smiley, a gay twig of a man, publicly expressed his displeasure with the artwork and suggested it be removed. Lo and behold, that’s what’s happening.
How far Providence has fallen that the issues requiring “leaning” on someone have gone from construction project bids to acrylics. Buddy Cianci’s toupee is flipping somewhere.
The Dark Lady’s owners, Randy and Buck, released a statement on the now national controversy, all but apologizing for how it unfolded.
“The mural on our building was created for one reason: It honors Iryna— a life taken too soon, as so many others have,” the statement reads, in part. “It was never intended to be political. The narrative being created about this is wrong, and it is deeply disappointing and concerning to see a memorial misunderstood, judged, and turned into something divisive.”
While I agree with the sentiment, that would have been a more powerful statement had Randy and Buck held their ground and allowed the artist, Ian Gaudreau, to continue his work.
For one, the art was not public. It was privately funded and featured on a privately owned building. The only sense that it was public was that it was on display for anyone to see for free, much like my car when it’s parked on the street.
Because it was privately commissioned on private property, neither the mayor nor anyone else besides the building owners had any say as to whether the mural remained.
And the fact that the Zarutska memorial mural evoked such anger and rage in Smiley and, allegedly, others in the Providence community proves that the artist is more than effective. Isn’t good art supposed to make you feel something? Shouldn’t there be a conviction of some kind?
Just because Iryna died at the hands of a criminal thug instead of underneath a police officer in George Floyd’s death (even though the major contributor to Floyd’s death was fentanyl in his system) doesn’t mean her death can’t become a poster child for a political cause.
Why wouldn’t Smiley want her face and life memorialized downtown? Is it because she’s white? Is it because she’s a refugee? Is it because she was minding her own business? Is it because her murderer is black? Is it because there weren’t widespread riots and mass looting incidents in retaliation for her killing?
It’s all of those things. They fly in the face of what Smiley and liberals have portrayed as a justice-worthy cause. She’s the anti-Floyd.
And because the left can’t put any convincing spin on Iryna’s story, they’re trying to memory-hole her.
Gaudreau, the muralist, is currently looking for another home for the Zarutska mural. If my house were big enough, I’d extend the invitation myself.
