Yesterday, Max Dana came with an unexpected news, saying: “SF Street Art Mecca to be demolished in September“. The Sama Team was there, we were all working at our desk (well, sort of) and we didn’t exactly understand what this news was about… As you may already know if you follow Max Dana’s work, she started by making graffiti in the mid-80’s and this a movement she continues to support, althought she doesn’t paint on walls anymore (well, I’d better check about that).

That is for the preamble, to give more context to the news. Now, the story published on SFWeekly, by Anna McCarthy:

“The old tuna cannery down in the flats of Bayview Hunters Point has, technically, been sitting empty ever since it was condemned after the ’89 quake. ​But one peek inside the immense building – now completely boarded up and guarded by a tall chain-linked fence – reveals it has hardly been abandoned. What appears on the outside as an industrial wasteland is, on the inside, perhaps the largest living canvas for graffiti artists in the entirety of San Francisco. And it won’t be around for much longer. A representative for Caltrans, which has owned the property since the mid-1930s, confirmed that the building is scheduled for demolition some time in mid-September.”

The building will be soon completely demolished and all the graffiti will be gone with it. I have to admit I have never been into graffiti, I barely know the movement and its meaning but as a novice interested into street art, I think this is a shame to destroy this ‘mecca’. Remember our post last month: Mat Benote at Guggenheim: yes, he can! – Maybe Benote should hang one of his ‘graffiti’ work on the wall of the building to bring more attention on this demolition of Art…