Tear it down!

City to remove artwork that used stolen pictures of comedians

The Canadian city of Calgary is to tear down the public art instillation that illicitly used pictures of UK-based comedians.

Local artist Derek Besant had given the impression that the 20 giant, blurry Polaroid-type pictures that adorned the 24th Street Underpass represented the people who used it.

But at least 12 of the 20 images were taken from the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe brochure – without the permission of the comedians or the photographers who took them.

The game was up when a friend of one of the comedians, Bisha K Ali, happened to spot her likeness in the subway and sent her the image. She posted it on Twitter and identified some of the other comics, too… then social media started filling in the gaps.

‘Morally, this is not right,’ she said. ‘This is an artist using the work of other artists and portraying it as their own. Artists are supposed to support each other.’

But within a day of the concerns being raised, the city – which paid Besant the equivalent of £12,000 to create the piece – decided to remove it.

The city’s general manager of community services, Kurt Hanson, told local broadcaster CBC News: ‘As part of the city's investigation, we have been in contact with the artist. The artist has said that we should remove the installation. We will be doing this and are considering our next steps.’

Besant has not been responding to requests to comment to the press, including Chortle’s

But photographer Andy Hollingworth – who took a portrait of Harriet Kelmsley used in the underpass has said the comedians and the photographers ought to be compensated.

Sofie Hagen, Ashley Storrie, Hardeep Singh Kholi, Abi Roberts and Markus Birdman are among the other comedians whose likenesses have been used.

The artwork, which featured phrases superimposed on the giant images, was completed in October 2015, soon after the Fringe ended.

Besant was at the festival that year himself, with an exhibit at the Edinburgh Printmakers, which similarly featured blurred black and white images which he said were members of the local community - the same premise as the Calgary artwork.

When the Canadian project was unveiled, Besant spoke of how he spent time in the underpass observing those who passed through, and that he wanted to directly represent the public.

'It has to do something that acknowledges people in that area,' he told Canada's Metro newspaper at the time. The newspaper said Besant wanted to represent Calgarians who cross the walkway every day

And the Avenue Calgary website said that the artist 'chose the 20 people at random from the pedestrians he met at the underpass. Though each phrase is pulled from his interviews with those people, they're not direct quotes from the person photographed'

When it announced the CA$20,000 commission, the city of Calgary explained that the piece was 'a series of printed portraits and text representing a cross section of the community.'

Here are images from the artwork,and the comedians' Fringe entries they were lifted from: