‘It’s a shame’: Musical railings vandalized in Victoria parkade

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WATCH: The artists of Victoria’s musical railings were shocked to discover that someone had vandalized their piece this week. Ceilidh Millar reports. 

If you park in or near the Bastion Square parkade in Victoria, you will probably hear the city’s public art installation before you will see it.

Musical railings allow people climbing the five-storey staircase of the parkade to make music by simply touching the sensors. On Wednesday the sounds of the interactive art display were temporarily distorted when someone defaced the piece.

The vandal spray-painted 64 of the 80 sensors.

“The whole thing was going crazy,” Parfit said. “People routinely put things over the sensors in order to get them all to go off, but this is a person who made it a bit more seem semi-permanent.”

The artists have several other interactive art displays throughout the Capital Region.

Parfit says this is the first time something like this has happened since the $10,000 art project was installed in the summer of 2016.

“The more stuff like this happens, the more we will hear ‘well why have public art if it’s just going to get ruined anyway,” Parfit explained.

Parfit is still working to remove some of the paint but says the railings were not damaged.

The news is music to the ears of those who’ve discovered the piece.

“It’s such a shame this happened,” said one woman we spoke to. “My daughter had tried them before and she wanted to park on the top of the garage so that she could play them all the way down.”

“It’s really unique and cool,” said a young girl enjoying the music.

The artists have a message they want to share with the person who defaced their work.

“We understand that you are expressing yourself artistically, we are also, but we would certainly like to work together as opposed to working against each other.” said Parfit.

The artists are planning to update the music and add some hidden tunes in the coming year.

Ceilidh MillarCeilidh Millar

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