Racist graffiti in Cardonald transformed into colourful mural by Glaswegian artist following plea by charity Refuweegee

Graffiti artist Negative Destination responded to a call to action from refugee charity Refuweegee after they were notified of racist graffiti yesterday (May 15).

On Saturday morning, the charity were informed by a local of the graffiti’s presence on the side of a Boots pharmacy branch located on Forfar Avenue by Paisley Road West in Cardonald, Glasgow.

‘Wipe out Gaza strip’ had been spray painted in red on the wall alongside ‘No hard border’, ‘U.V.F’ and ‘We will fight N.S’.

Glaswegian artist Negative Destination arrived at the scene yesterday evening after Refuweegee had issued a call to action on their Instagram page to any spray artists available to remove or replace the racist graffiti in the area.

On hearing about the incident, Negative Destination said: “When I heard, I just jumped in a taxi with as much paint as I could carry.”

While he was concerned about not being able to cover the entirety of the wide wall, the artist added that: “I wanted to just get as many colours as I could on there. I could only carry so much paint, so just had to drop a bit of everything in there.”

Despite a limited supply of paint, he said creating a rainbow to stretch across the wall was “an obvious choice”.

The colourful mural in Cardonald replaced racist graffiti with a more hopeful, positive message: 'Racism's kind of *****, isn't it?' on Saturday evening.

“People like rainbows, they make everybody happy. And I had a lot of blue and green so used that to paint the world.”

While the response to the mural was mixed, Negative Destination said he was keen to simply turn the racist graffiti into something better and more positive for the community.

Posting on their Instagram page, Refuweegee said: “Yesterday we received a message about some racist graffiti.

“Our role in welcoming people to the city does not stop at welcome packs and food support. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming space however and wherever we can.

“Within an hour of asking if any of our spray pals were about @negativedestination was on site not just covering the words but making something really beautiful in its place.

“This is how we welcome. This is Glasgow.”

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