More than a decade after installation, the art adorning the south side of Victoria’s breakwater once again stands out in full colour.
After months of weather challenges and material delays, the Victoria Harbour Authority happily announced on Nov. 21 that Jesse Campbell’s restoration work on the Unity Wall on the breakwater is complete.
“Thank you to Jesse Campbell, Metis mural painter and original Unity Wall youth artist, for your tireless work and dedication to this project,” the authority said on social media.
Campbell was part of the 2013 team that installed the works originally designed by Butch Dick and Darlene Gait of the Songhees and Xwsepsum nations. The project was completed after they finished painting the third phase of the Na'tsa'maht Panel mural – a significant work – over the summer of 2013.
“To my knowledge, the Na’tsa’maht mural on the north side is the longest-designed mural in North America at over 1200 feet long and 8 feet high,” Campbell said on social media Nov. 21.
"For a time there was talk about taking half of the Rock Bay mural ... also designed by Butch and Darlene, and installing it to extend the length by over 100 feet. This would’ve made the Na’tsa’maht one of the longest continuous murals in the world."
Many things made the breakwater a challenging surface to work on, Campbell mentioned.
"It is subject to harsh waves, high UV exposure, wind, and public interference. The 107-year-old concrete and stone wall weeps trapped moisture making proper contact adhesion difficult even during the dry months.”
Prior to this work, the artist also did partial restoration of the same mural in the summer of 2018.
Over the course of the project, 18 main designs were repainted and 22 resealed. Twenty-six split wolf heads were refreshed and 44 blue and sand wolf heads were restored. To abate wave erosion, a thick layer of silicone-based anti-graffiti coating was applied to seal each main design, ensuring the colourful art can continue to last for years to come.
