The artist behind a graffiti mural in support of the Black Lives Movement has expressed her disappointment after the words ‘white lives matter’ were daubed on it.
The graffiti, in the underpass off Pottergate, was also sprayed with the phrases ‘NF’ and ‘sons of England’. ‘NF’ is believed to stand for National Front, the far right political party.
It was painted by well-known graffiti artist, Ruth “Knapple” Knapp who went straight to the scene on Sunday to begin covering the messages.
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The artist has decided she will paint over the work and come up with a completely new design - which she spent 45 minutes creating Saturday afternoon.
She said; “I felt disappointed again for the black community. We are trying to do good here, it is just sad that they have to say that.
“As soon as I saw this message I was straight down here”.
The graffiti was first painted las week in solidarity following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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The artist returned to paint a new mural on Friday after a message generated by automatic complaint system resulted in the graffiti being painted over by contractors.
Norwich City Council apologised for the “terrible misunderstanding”.
Knapple then created ‘Educate on Equality’ and includes a picture of a black panther, referencing the Black Panther movement.
She said she and fellow artist Fearne Elliott had been at Pottergate to around 7.30pm last night.
Ms Elliott produced another mural piece which read “We need to stand together”, which was not altered.
Knapple said: “It is really disappointed I wanted to come down and fix this before anybody did see it. I didn’t want people to see it.
“It has been a crazy week for Norwich.
“I have got plenty of paint, people are always getting more and I will just keep going.”
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