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34 Comments

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Who Is The Mystery Mahler Among Us?

By Alexandra Samur

2007_10_11mahler2.jpg
2007_10_11mahler.jpg
At their crudest, graffiti tags are generally used for the artist’s personal aggrandizement. While it is not uncommon for graffitists to tag the names legendary celebrities (Tupac anyone?) much more rare is the tagger who promotes the work of classical composers posthumously.
Recently, tags of the name of the Bohemian-Austrian composer Gustav Mahler mysteriously appeared on the Queen Street Bridge and along Lake Shore Boulevard East. Who is this culturally aplomb tagger and why is he/she giving props to the bombastic composer?
Photos by Alexandra Samur.

Comments

  • qeust

    “Mysteriously appeared…”
    Me: I’d like to solve the puzzle; They were spray painted on. Durr.
    Show Host: Oooo, I’m sorry. The appearance of the name is actually the result of a mass hallucination brought on by high carbon monoxide levels in Toronto’s atmosphere.
    Me: Balls!

  • rek

    I’m usually the one defending graffiti, but the dickhead who did this defaced the mathematics mural on the Jimmie Simpson Community Centre.

  • guest

    Well, the guy did compose songs for dead children. Cheer up, emo composer?

  • Chris Taylor

    Well shoot. Now I gotta run to Home Depot to load up on paint for counter-tagging: “Mahler blows. George Friedric Handel roXX0rs OK”

  • snailspace

    Nuit Blanche wannabes? There’s another one just east of Sherbourne on King.

  • Ben

    it’s surely some art project.

  • guest

    Someone also defaced the current artwork at the Toronto Sculpture Garden by spraypainting this on the car. This person is not an artist, or at least not one who has any respect for art.

  • Marc Lostracco

    Plus, the bottom photo is the Gardiner East Public Art Project, so it doesn’t look like this tagger is particularly discerning.

  • davedave

    This person obviously wanted to publicly say “Look at me – I’m a giant asshole”.
    Mystery solved.

  • guest

    Perhaps I have seen one too many CSI-type shows (check that – I know I have: begin shame) but I wonder if these two tags were actually done by different people. The letters “A”, “V”, “L” and “E” each look to have been made using different techniques, no?

    Given the other commentators’ observations that at least two of these Mahler tags appear on public visual arts projects, maybe this is the opening salvo (or sonata?) in a musicians vs. visual artists throwdown… .

  • meredi

    tyrannosaurus_rek, I am completely with you. I don’t care so much about the bridges, etc., but how dare someone deface that Jimmy Simpson mural — that’s one of my favourite things in the whole neighbourhood. Soooo sad.
    At first we thought it might have something to do with the movie being filmed recently (last weekend?) but then we discovered tons more.
    Hopefully this jerk has had his fun…

  • kutoff

    I live in Corktown and this was tagged in MANY places. Like, all over the place. Very, very odd.
    Also very odd that 51 Division is right there. With all the cop cars driving around, and this huge graffiti, I’m really surprised they didn’t get caught. Whoever did this certainly put a lot of effort into it!
    RIP Gustav Mahler.

  • guest

    I’m usually the one defending graffiti, but the dickhead who did this defaced the mathematics mural on the Jimmie Simpson Community Centre.
    Defensible until its done to something you like? Well I guess what you like is more important than what others like.

  • Chris Taylor

    Come now, where is your cultural sensitivity? Tagging is a fine expression of the freewheeling creativity of an underprivileged urban class, who are denied entry to the world of high art by its culturo-normative insistence on adherence to outmoded and outdated Eurocentric Modernist and post-Modernist aesthetics.

  • Kevin McBride

    It reminds me of the Val Kilmer graf that was going around a few years ago – possibly promoting a band.

  • David Newland

    Presumably, “Gustav Mahler” became a graffiti tag around the time “aplomb” became an adjective.

  • Gloria

    I was going to comment to bitch about the defacement of Jimmie Simpson too … as if that building wasn’t suffering enough from neglect.

  • guest


    Presumably, “Gustav Mahler” became a graffiti tag around the time “aplomb” became an adjective.


    …which was just before Grumpy McGrammar dropped in to post on Torontoist. Ah well. Too bad you didn’t have anything to add to the discussion, content-wise.
    “User: Guest heads off to critique the writing on canoe.ca…”.

  • rek

    Guest 13: I don’t have any particular affection for the mural, but hitting a community mural (a nerdy one at that) is hardly the same as going after billboards and bare walls. I don’t really mind that it’s sprayed on bridges and whatnot.

  • guest

    It’s a new viral marketing campaign by the Toronto Symphony designed to prove that classical music isn’t elitist…orchestras can be down with the peeps etc. Tuxedos are the new baggy trousers.
    http://www.theomniscientmussel.com

  • meredi

    Guest, you quoted tyrannosaurus_rek but since I agreed with him I’m going to comment too.
    I don’t know much about graffiti removal, but one difference to me is that I expect you can clean up bare concrete easily. I don’t see how the Jimmy Simpson mural can be cleaned up without actually repainting it, and it seems pretty clear that there isn’t money available for something like that right now.
    It also seems like a huge F-you to the Riverside community. I mean, it’s bad enough to go around tagging random objects (I’m not saying I agree with that), but people put time and effort into that mural and it beautifies the neighbourhood. It takes an act of dissidence and moves it one notch higher on the scale.
    And how sad about the Sculpture Garden too (only just saw that guest post).

  • ElleDriver

    Most serious graffiti artists respect the work of other wall artists – whether it’s another tagger, or a commissioned artist – and will not deface the work. It’s an unwritten code.
    The person who tagged the JS mural was just being a fucking prick – probably some art-school asshat who thought he was being clever.

  • warmflash

    Was Mahler in favor of funding for religious schools?
    Maybe this was part of the election excitement which literally gripped the city for the past few weeks.

  • guest

    Gustav Mahler is the new skinny jeans

  • guest

    Meredi, is there some sort of public ownership of beauty? Why can’t this tag on the Jimmie Simpson Community Centre be considered beautiful?

  • guest

    To the guest above, Val Kilmer had nothing to do with a band. There were 2 Val Kilmers, though. One was a person postering the face of Val Kilmer everywhere, and another was crudely spraypainting the words, much like this ‘Gustav Mahler’ person. The sprayer originated in New Market while the posterer just rode his coat tails.
    Anyways, people complaining about him tagging people’s art are missing the fact that he seems to be making a specific effort to tag public art. You don’t hit that many by accident.

  • guest

    t-rek, if the acceptability of graffiti is subjective, then who is anyone to tell anyone else that they should not put it somewhere. You may not like it, but you have to live with it. Everything is fair game, not just those things that t-rek does not care about seeing graffiti free.

  • guest

    I think Toronto Kevin is on to something. Perhaps the band is the Toronto Symphony? They’ve programmed Mahler on concerts in February, March and April.

  • guest

    The Jimmy Simpson tagging was what pushed this from being a mildly amusing prank to a seriously disrespectful act of vandalism. This happened after Torontoist posted this blog entry – let’s hope that the publicity hasn’t encouraged this goofball to continue.

  • ElleDriver

    Defacing someone else’s work is NOT “beautiful”. Especially when it’s done in such a crude and thoughtless manner.
    I suppose you think that the guy who puked on the painting at the AGO, or the kids who puched a hole through the Monet in Paris were justified, because they were making a “statement”. It’s bullshit. It’s for the attention, and they got it.
    This paticular asshole is targeting anything – whether it’s the JS mural, or the bridge at Queen and River, so it’s not limited to public art.

  • meredi

    For the record, the Jimmy Simpson tagging most did not happen after the Torontoist coverage of the graffiti. I noticed it on the 13th, but it could have been there as early as the 11th or 12th. But regardless guest 29, I do share your hope that this ridiculousness is over.

  • fantasygoat

    The punishment for tagging should be that the owner of whatever property was tagged gets to spraypaint the tagger. On the face.

  • amigomatt

    Being from the UK, I have no idea about how important or representative these places are that have been tagged, but a friend of mine forwarded this to me as he knows that I’ve been devoted to Mahler and his music for years now.
    It doesn’t sound like anyone leaving comments here is a real Mahlerite, but for anyone that is, how beautifully unexpected it is to see ‘his’ name in such an instance as this!
    I agree that no artist no-one has the right to deface a piece of art or architecture of social standing, importance or worth, but for us dedicatees of Gustav Mahler that I speak of, I believe we can’t deny this being a poignant ‘twinkle-in-the-eye’ moment…

  • rek

    The part of the mural at Jimmie Simpson that was painted over has since been covered with a fresh base coat.