{"id":204344,"date":"2025-10-11T01:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204344\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T01:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:46:10","slug":"jd-vance-and-elon-musk-call-canterbury-cathedral-graffiti-shameful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204344\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance and Elon Musk call Canterbury Cathedral graffiti \u2018shameful\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US vice-president JD Vance has criticised a graffiti\u2013style art installation at Canterbury Cathedral for making a \u201cbeautiful historical building really ugly\u201d, while Elon Musk has called it \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Visitors were shocked this week to find the cathedral\u2019s interior covered in what appeared to be graffiti. One described it as looking like \u201can underground car park in Peckham\u201d, days after the Right Rev Dame Sarah Mullally<\/a> was named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury within its walls.<\/p>\n

The brightly coloured images on pillars, walls and staircases are part of an art installation that, by the cathedral\u2019s own admission, has \u201cdivided public opinion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Graffiti-style<\/p>\n

The graffiti stickers will be removed before the Right Rev Sarah Mullally\u2019s enthronement ceremony<\/p>\n

\"Graffiti<\/p>\n

Vance and Musk are among those to have taken against the project after The Times reported on the installation. The cathedral said that a poet and curator had worked with \u201cmarginalised communities and a team of skilled artists to create vibrant handwritten literature responding to the question: \u2018What would you ask God?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance posted on X: \u201cIt is weird to me that these people don\u2019t see the irony of honoring \u2018marginalized communities\u2019 by making a beautiful historical building really ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk, the Tesla chief executive, replied to a post about the installation with the single word \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n

The graffiti looks as if it has been spray-painted in typical street style, mimicking scribbled \u201ctags\u201d, rounded \u201cthrow-up\u201d lettering and more complex \u201cwildstyle\u201d designs.<\/p>\n

They have been \u201cexpertly and sensitively\u201d applied as temporary stick-on graphics around the interior of the cathedral and carry questions that people have asked God during moments of doubt or curiosity.<\/p>\n

\u2022 First female Archbishop faces battle for England\u2019s soul<\/a><\/p>\n

These include questions such as \u201cAre you there?\u201d, \u201cWhere does love come from?\u201d, \u201cGod, what happens when we die?\u201d and \u201cWhy did you create hate when love is by far more powerful?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathedral bosses took the unusual step of proactively sharing some of the criticism of its art installation, noting that one visitor had told them: \u201cI think it\u2019s sacrilegious.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The installation formally opens on October 17<\/p>\n

They said: \u201c[It] has split public opinion ahead of its official launch, with visitors reporting visceral reactions to the bold graffiti-style graphics and thought-provoking questions displayed on the ancient walls. While many have reported their delight and intrigue, others have been discomforted by encountering the artworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

They pointed to the fact that the cathedral was no stranger to graffiti, noting that it is already home to a host of images, crosses, initials and words scratched into its pillars and walls dating back as far as 1667.<\/p>\n

They noted that there is a \u201cgreat variety of historical graffiti within the cathedral, including masons\u2019 marks, religious graffiti in the form of crosses and Christograms, and marks made throughout the centuries by pilgrims and other visitors\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Archbishop must grapple with fractious Church of England<\/a><\/p>\n

Conceived by Alex Vellis, a poet, and Jacquiline Creswell, a curator, the Hear Us installation was inspired by community workshops in which people responded to the question: \u201cWhat would you ask God?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a rawness which is magnified by the graffiti style which is disruptive,\u201d said the Very Rev David Monteith, the Dean of Canterbury, recognising the project\u2019s potential to divide opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exhibition intentionally builds bridges between cultures, styles and genres and in particular allows us to receive the gifts of younger people who have much to say and from whom we need to hear much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The installation formally opens on October 17 and will remain in place until January 18, which means it will be removed before Mullally\u2019s enthronement ceremony to install her as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury.<\/p>\n

Responding to Vance and Musk\u2019s comments, the dean of the cathedral said the graffiti-style images were \u201cundoubtedly jarring and will be unacceptable for some\u201d but said they were asking \u201csincere questions of faith and meaning\u201d and asked how this could be \u201cinterpreted as sacrilegious\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will love or hate our \u2018Hear Us\u2019 installation, no question,\u201d Monteith said. \u201cBut rather than react just on the basis of a few online comments, I would encourage people to come and experience the artworks for themselves and to make up their own minds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US vice-president JD Vance has criticised a graffiti\u2013style art installation at Canterbury Cathedral for making a \u201cbeautiful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-204344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}