![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Fin-DAC.jpg\")
Fin DAC has painted murals all around the globe. Photo: Instagram.<\/p>\nKent Town residents are upset after a longstanding mural depicting a Geisha-inspired woman was removed from a Rundle Street building.<\/p>\n
The mural, titled Shinka, was painted in 2016 by world-renowned Irish street artist Fin DAC as part of the Little Rundle Street Art Project, which was launched by owners of the former Tin Cat Caf\u00e9 in Kent Town.<\/p>\n
The artist is best known for his large murals and canvas work and has created art pieces all over the world, including France, Spain, Cambodia, Tahiti and the United States, and contributed to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.<\/p>\n
He also painted \u2018Zaluuokhin\u2019 in the city\u2019s East End on Vardon Avenue and \u2018Simchoon\u2019 on the Lower Napier building at the Adelaide University campus.<\/p>\n
Fin DAC told InDaily he found out about Shinka\u2019s removal after receiving social media messages from followers and Adelaide locals.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I understand the disappointment \u2013 and it\u2019s genuinely touching to see how much affection the mural had built up over the last ten years \u2013 this is, unfortunately, the ephemeral nature of street art,\u201d DAC said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exact same thing happened in my hometown of Cork, Ireland, where a much-loved mural was removed by someone who perhaps didn\u2019t fully appreciate the connection public artworks can develop with a community.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving experienced that before and having witnessed the subsequent vitriol directed at the property owner, I\u2019d always encourage people to consider the possibility of an innocent mistake before assuming malicious intent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fin DAC has painted murals all around the globe. Photo: Instagram.<\/p>\n
While he said the property owner was \u201centitled to make a decision about their own premises\u201d, he called for greater protections to prominent artworks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps situations like this highlight the need for some form of heritage or cultural protection for public artworks that have become meaningful landmarks, so they can\u2019t be removed without at least some level of community consultation,\u201d DAC said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experiences painting in Adelaide have always been overwhelmingly positive\u2014from Kent Town to the CBD, to Adelaide University itself. If an opportunity arose to return and create something new for the city, I\u2019d be delighted to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shinka was one of several street art murals in Kent Town, with prominent Adelaide-born and London-based artist Jimmy C also painting a Rundle Street mural in 2016. At the time, Norwood Payneham and St Peters Council provided six artists with funding of $1000 to cover time and material costs to create the outdoor gallery.<\/p>\n
The removal follows a development application sent to Norwood Payneham and St Peters Council in January seeking a change in use for the Rundle Street building to be used by Flagship Distillery from a warehouse to a distillery and associated bar.<\/p>\n
InDaily understands Flagship Distillery was unaware and had no say in the mural\u2019s removal, with the decision instead initiated by the property owner.\u00a0InDaily\u00a0is not suggesting the property owner engaged in any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Kent Town resident Dr David Baker, who lives a few houses away from the mural, said he was \u201cextremely disappointed\u201d to see it removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the painting was made, we\u2019ve wandered outside and seen people there taking photographs of it and some of them were international tourists,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the definition of culture, and that\u2019s why we have street art. It\u2019s another reason to encourage people to come to Kent Town to see this stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the art won\u2019t be there forever, but as some people have said, there maybe could have been consultation with the locals which would have produced a more amicable outcome in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Shinka-2.jpg\")
Photo: supplied.<\/p>\n
Norwood Payneham and St Peters councillor Sandy Wilkinson said it was a \u201cshock\u201d to see the mural removed, describing it as a \u201cgreat loss for Kent Town\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always loved that mural and think it was a beautiful addition to the street,\u201d Wilkinson told InDaily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mural was a high point in that part of the streetscape, which is now just a fairly boring warehouse building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilkinson, who is an expert in heritage and design, said there would be no way of restoring Fin DAC\u2019s painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you\u2019ve painted over a mural, you can\u2019t strip the paint off to ever reveal it, because the paint stripper will take off the mural paint as well as the paint over the top,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, once it\u2019s covered over, it\u2019s ruined and lost forever. Unless there was some agreement or arrangement at the time that the council provided funding for the public art, council probably is powerless.<\/p>\n
\u201cProvisions should be put in place to protect the investment of public money in art projects, so they don\u2019t just get painted over.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Norwood Payneham and St Peters Council said the removal of a mural on private property does not require an assessment from the Council Assessment Panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mural was on private property and as such it is at the discretion of the property owner,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kent Town residents are upset after a longstanding mural depicting a Geisha-inspired woman was removed from a Rundle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-773689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773689","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=773689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}