Chinese-Australian photographer Horace Li has a message for those responsible for vandalising his artwork depicting Chinese family portraits, which is on display at Sydney's Bondi Beach.
“The world is a very divided place right now and this is not the way to unite it,” Li told SBS News.
Li’s artwork featuring 10 photographs is part of the 10-day Head On Photo Festival, which kicked off in Sydney on Friday.
More than 500 artworks have been hung along the Bondi Beach promenade as part of the festival program, spanning about 600 metres.
But only one artwork has been vandalised by black paint, including the word “scum”. And Li has a good idea why.
“Because it depicts portraits of Chinese families.”
A former photojournalist for China Youth, one of the oldest magazines in the country, Li has been living in Australia for the past 10 years.
He visits his hometown of Taiyuan - in the country’s Shanxi Province - every year to visit his family.
As part of an ongoing photography project, he takes portraits of his family every year.
Chinese-Australian photographer Horace Li. Source: Supplied
“But this year I was not able to go back and take any pictures of my family. And there are many other Chinese families who could not go back due to the pandemic.”
So Li invited some of those families to his new studio in Sydney’s Alexandria this year.
Instead of taking portraits of his own family, he took images of others - an exercise that gave him solace in times of extreme emotional distress.
“I used some of those images in this artwork and that’s why this [act of vandalism] is so disappointing, so shocking,” Li said.
Festival director Moshe Rosenzveig discovered the vandalised artwork, called The Journey Home, on Thursday morning when he arrived at Bondi Beach to put finishing touches on the exhibition.
“I was saddened that some people feel the need to destroy other people’s work in general and especially artwork,” he told SBS News.
“While it was an unfortunate and distasteful incident, it won’t deter us from bringing more photography into the public space."
This is the first time an incident of this nature has occurred, according to Mr Rosenzveig.
“We have produced outdoor art installations for 12 years and it is a credit to the general public that this is the first serious incident.
“One year, a print was stolen, which we took as a compliment - they obviously liked the artwork,” he said.
Waverley Council is covering the cost of cleaning up the damaged artwork and criticised the act in a statement released on Thursday.
“Waverley Council has no tolerance for acts of vandalism in our public places,” the council said.
NSW Police also released a statement that said an investigation was continuing, with anyone with information to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
