St Pauls Carnival apologises over 'plagiarised' artwork row

St Pauls Carnival has apologised after a street artist accused organisers of endorsing a T-shirt which he claimed plagiarised his work.

Inkie, who created a mural for the carnival's 50th anniversary in 2018, claimed T-shirt business Alright Mate had ripped off the design.

Alright Mate had planned to donate some profits to the event and said the organisers had approved the artwork.

Carnival organisers have since admitted making an "error of judgement".

On Saturday, Inkie posted on Instagram: "Embarrassingly @stpaulscarnivalbristol think it's okay to release this fraudulent version of my original carnival design."

He branded Alright Mate "a copyright loser", adding "absolute shame on you".

Luca, the online shop's owner, told BBC West he had woken up to a torrent of online abuse following Inkie's post, and was "mortified" by the row.

He said he commissioned the image from a graphic designer and "wanted to include everything about the carnival".

Luca, who did not give his last name, said: "Obviously there has been an inspiration but that design was made from scratch."

He described it as a "tribute" to Inkie's work and said he had been in discussion with the carnival for months about the design.

The T-shirt has since been pulled from sale.

"It was an unofficial T-shirt, but I did want some profits to go to the carnival," Luca said.

"I wouldn't have posted it if they said no. I wanted a St Pauls T-shirt because I live here, and I want to give something back to the community."

As well as the alleged plagiarism, the T-shirt was also criticised for featuring guns and knives when the carnival has historically had a problem with violence.

Luca said: "I thought it was clear. I know there has been violence in the carnival so I wanted to make a T-shirt showing positive vibes - the knives are broken and the guns have flowers in them."

The row prompted carnival board member Adam Tutton to announce his resignation on Twitter.

He said: "Disgusted at use of copied art work by @inkiegraffiti with addition of images of weapons. Completely inappropriate when promoting a community event."

Mr Tutton refused to comment further when approached and his tweet has since been deleted.

Inkie has also now deleted his angry post.

On Sunday, carnival organisers said they wanted to apologise "for the artistic error of judgement in endorsing a T-shirt design from a local designer on our social platforms yesterday".

The statement continued: "Alright Mate generously offered to share some of the proceeds from the sale of his unofficial St Pauls Carnival-themed T-shirt in good faith."

The carnival said the person who approved the design was no longer a member of staff.

"While we have robust processes in place for reviewing all collaborations, it is clear that on this occasion we fell far short," it said.

Referring to the images of weapons, it said: "Understandably, some members of the community have raised concerns over the design, despite the intended peaceful message.

"We represent the coming together, unity and the celebration of African-Caribbean culture and strongly oppose anything with links to violence and the endangering of lives."

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