This is not a pleasant story to share but share it I must. It’s sadly true and reflective of the wave of anti-Semitism that has seared its way across the globe in more recent days.
The Big Sculpture St Kilda Trail occurs every financial year. For the 2024-’25 year it ran between December 15 and February 16. It is enormously popular, with multiple guided tours, guest appearances by the artists and countless influencers taking advantage of the spectacle. As he has done over many years, Johnny Iodice – proprietor of the iconic Vineyard bar and restaurant on Acland Street – donated out of his own pocket funds to install a quirky piece in the O’Donnell Gardens, outside his business’ courtyard. It was one of many, 21 all up, scattered throughout St Kilda.
‘Automotive Geologies’ by Jason Waterhouse, attracted attention, helped sharpen the wit of many a wag and even acquired a few jocular parking fines – although its undercarriage is more boat than old VW Golf. It also attracted much graffiti – and some of that was not just idle hasty tagging.
Several weeks ago, a concerned citizen Chris Cox caught a vandal in the act of defacing the artwork. What he saw this art-vandal smearing the sculpture with outraged him. With his mobile phone out of charge, he raced into ‘The Vineyard’, alerted staff there and an equally shocked bar manageress, Anuschka Byrne-Shegog, immediately notified the cops. Chris then went back outside and told the vandal to immediately desist he was covering the artwork in not just multiple swastikas –and certainly not just the Hindi symbol on the windshield– but SS logos, mutilated Star of David icons and abuse towards the Jewish community. Chris and Anuschka joined him and five police officers turned up. Four of them immediately detained the vandal, while the fifth officer photographed the anti-Semitic abuse.While I spoke with the officer who was photo-recording this defacement, Chris assisted Anuschka by grabbing some mineral turpentine and they quickly set to work erasing the offensive symbols. From the other side of the road – where he was being searched and charged – the vandal screamed out, “Leave my bloody art alone!” We were all stunned by this outburst, the police officer informed us that the vandal had a serious criminal record and asked us to ignore him. That we did.
Once the police officers had charged the vandal and then departed, he raced into ‘The Vineyard’ and started screaming abuse at Anuschka for “…touching my artwork. It was just a Hindi swastika!”
Anuschka considered reaching for a concealed can of pepper-spray to defend herself. Unfortunately, neither Chris nor I were present at the time, but when customers walked into the venue during this tirade Anuschka felt safe enough to demand that the vandal immediately leave the venue. Fortunately, after more profanity, he stormed out.
After this sorry incident (and its terrible ‘sequel’), we all hoped that would be the end of the matter. Instead, the sculpture piece became a sort of focal point for those protesting the Israeli-Gaza war. Not once – but three times –vandals turned up by night to emblazon huge ‘Free Palestine’ slogans across the sculpture. On the first, confronting occasion, those of us present at ‘The Vineyard’ that morning all set-to with turps and erased the slogans.
On the second and third occasions, the art-vandals had resorted to a particularly gritty type of paint, that proved resistant to our efforts. The City of Port Phillip Graffiti Removal Team had to be called in to remove the sloganeering, at (of course) cost to local ratepayers. I then formally requested the now-notorious sculpture be towed away by Council before it became a flashpoint for anything more dangerous.
The federal member for Macnamara, Josh Burns, said, “The Vineyard is a place for people to come together, have a drink and listen to great music.
“St Kilda is home to people from all different cultures and I know all of us work to create a welcoming and inclusive environment.
“To see Nazi symbols and hate graffitied outside The Vineyard goes against everything our community stands for. But the St Kilda community will never let hate win.”
According to a recent City of Port Phillip newsletter, 12, 721 square metres of graffiti were removed within the district between July 2024 and January 2025. Offensive graffiti is removed as quickly as within 4 hours. May the Council (or community) never be called upon to have to remove such hateful and art-destructive symbolism as this again.
*Dr. John A. Martino Greek-Italian Australian disabled veteran honourably discharged from the ADF, he wrote his PhD in ancient history through Monash and Melbourne universities. He is the author of ‘Olympia: The Birth of the Games’, his debut novel on the founding of the ancient (and more modern) Olympics.
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