Politics
Provocative Hillary Clinton Mural Removed Despite Artist’s Attempt at Self-Censorship
Lushsux covered Clinton's racy depiction with a niqab, but it didn't last.
Carol Civre
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The provocative Hillary Clinton mural by street artist Lushsux that made headlines earlier this week has been entirely removed on request of the local Maribyrnong Council.
The mural has had a tumultuous existence during its roughly week-long lifespan. After altering the original image by stuffing dollar bills down Hillary Clinton’s swimsuit in his racy depiction of the presidential candidate, the Australian street artist made yet another addition by dressing Clinton in a niqab.
After the mural he painted, depicting Clinton in a revealing monokini went viral, Lushsux’s Instagram was deleted and he received complaints from the city council requesting that the artwork be removed.
While Lushsux speculates that his Instagram was deleted in a politically biased act of censorship, complaints about the mural form the local Maribyrnong Council focused on the mural’s revealing, and apparently sexist nature, not on its mocking political undertone.
“We believe it is offensive because of the depiction of a near-naked woman, not on the basis of disrespect to Hillary Clinton, in accordance with the Graffiti Prevention Act 2007,” the council’s spokesman Stephen Wall said, according to the Huffington Post.
To silence opposition, Lushsux censored the mural himself by covering Clinton’s swimsuit-clad, hyper-sexualized body in a niqab—the black veil worn by some Muslim women which only reveals the eyes. The new mural read “If this Muslim woman offends u, u r a bigot, racist, sexist Islamophobe.”
Lushsux was quick to post a picture of the renovated mural to his new Instagram account, with the following caption serving as a biting response to the concerns previously voiced by the council: “This is no longer a wall of a supposed ‘offensive and near naked’ Hillary Clinton, it is now a depiction of a beautiful Muslim woman. No reasonable person would consider this offensive. If you do consider it offensive you are a sexist, racist, islamophobic, xenophobic, uncultured, and ignorant bigot.”
Yet, despite his attempt at self-censorship, the latest post on the artist’s Instagram reveals that the mural has been removed after all, entirely covered in black paint. The caption sarcastically reads: “Looks like the council wins. GG (good game).”
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