Marc de Jong : Bank nabs art
May 3, 1999
A MELBOURNE ART SHOW HAS been censored by the National Australia Bank.
The show by artist Marc de Jong consists of four illuminated signs on the back of the National Australia Bank building in Centre Place. Each sign is a credit card logo with the text changed; 'American Express' now reads 'American Excess', while 'Visa' has been changed to read 'Vice'. The four illuminated signs were covered with black plastic and gaffer tape by workmen on 19 and 20 April, and the power turned off.
'We saw two guys on ladders covering up the bottom two lightboxes with black plastic and what looked like gaffer tape,' says Mr de Jong. He said he went to his nearby studio to get his camera, returning to the site to take these pictures. 'I asked the guys what they were doing...they said they were covering up the lightboxes on behalf of the bank - they were working for the bank.' The workmen were back the next day with a cherry picker, and covered up the top two signs.
Two illuminated signs advertising the show - but situated on a different building - also had their power cut, although they were not covered with plastic.
The site has been operating under the name 'City Lights' for some time, with the permission of the bank. City Lights receives funding from the Melbourne City Council. The current show had been up for about six weeks.
Spokesperson for the NAB, Hayden Park, said that the bank thought the show was 'inappropriate' and could affect staff morale. He said that there was a lot of misinformed bank bashing about. When asked if this was more important than an artist's right to freedom of speech he replied: 'We have rights about what is displayed on our buildings.' Mr Park could give no reason why the NAB hadn't asked City Lights to remove the artworks rather than covering them. 'We took the step that needed to be taken,' he said. He said that the bank 'most definitely' stood behind its actions.
In an artist's statement, Mr de Jong said that his 'Readvertising' works were 'a humorous, non-profit art form drawn up as a counter measure to what I see as the erosion of our senses by the constant stream of propaganda known to us as advertising.
'The methodology of Readvertising is to sponsor thought and cultural change by challenging the visual identity of consumer based logos from within the framework of the original logo'.
Writer: Ben Butler