Robert Montgomery
Robert Montgomery attends the Robert Montgomery Exhibition Opening during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Istanbul FW15 in Istanbul Getty

KEY POINTS

  • Text from artist used in painting to promote pop-up shop in east London.
  • Montgomery says "sex with refugees is jasmine-scented and beautiful" line has been grossly misjudged.

An artist known for his use of text and neon lighting has apologised after some of his work was "grossly misjudged" in the promotion of a clothing store in east London.

A huge mural containing the line "sex with refugees is jasmine-scented and beautiful" appeared in Shoreditch over the weekend on a building being used as a pop-up shop for clothing brand A-Cold-Wall.

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Photographs of the mural were widely shared on social media, with some condemning the work as "disgusting" and "horrific".

The text is believed to have been taken from a longer piece from workshops attended by Scottish artist Robert Montgomery, who has now asked for the text to be removed while apologising for any offence it may have caused.

He said that he did not paint the mural himself and the text was never intended to be used in a commercial way.

In a lengthy statement posted on Facebook, he added: "I have asked for this wall writing to be removed and it has been today. It was not painted by me and was not intended as an Artwork by me. I apologise for any offence it may have caused anyone.

"These words were taken out of context in a way I did not authorise. It was excerpted from a much longer text that came out of workshops I participated in on how it might be possible to reverse the stereotyping language used to represent refugees in the mainstream media.

"The workshop was about experimenting to find language that might reverse the tone of de-humanisation applied to refugees by certain media and this was an excerpt from a much longer text taken very unfortunately out of context.

"The use of this particular text without its context was grossly misjudged as it was clearly open to misinterpretation."

He added: "The text has been removed from the wall where it appeared only briefly. I did not paint it, but I still feel responsible for any offence it caused as it has been associated to my name and I apologise for that to everyone."

Montgomery is known for using extracts of text and poems for his installations which are often staged in public rather than the usual gallery setting.