Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Two Murals on Olive Street

The Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater strip club has long had rotating murals on the back of its building flanking Olive Street which is actually a three-block alley.

The current mural is Archon's Dream, a fabulously psychedelic offering from Max Ehrman who goes by the nom de plume EON75. At his website opening page, there is a wonderful little video showing him marching out his front door, crossing the city, and painting the wall (click here).

Across Polk Street, flanking a parking lot, is an ironic Summer of Love mural by Italian artists Jorit Agoch and Leticia Mandragora. (Click here for a great article about the piece and the artists by Jonathan Curiel at SF Weekly.)

The red paint is fading fast, but "LOVE" has been crossed out and "HOMELESS" is scrawled above. According to Curiel's interview with the artist: "The poverty I saw in San Francisco shocked me, not so much because of the material poverty, [which] I encountered in other parts of the world, but because of spiritual poverty due to the lack of sense of community and morals."

On the Fourth of July, the pair above had drunked/drugged themselves too early, and were a perfect complement to the wall art behind them.

2 comments:

sfwillie said...

Wow! Mitchell Bros is still operating? In this time when all institutions are under attack, Mitchell Bros, at least, survives.

Civic Center said...

Yeah, I was surprised they still have the Mitchell Brothers names on the official signage and website. And I don't think hetero strip clubs will ever truly die, particularly ones that are globally legendary like this one.