Banksy’s Third Week in New York City.
Banksy had somewhat of a troubling third week with some NYPD run-ins and delays (my “weeks” are a bit off date wise - he has only 2 days left in his month long “residency”) but any artist knows that to keep working is the best way to solve any problem and Banksy did just that.
Wednesday, October 23rd saw no Banksy work at all (sort of/maybe) with Banksy’s website and Instagram simply reporting “Today’s art has been cancelled due to police activity." Rumors flew wildly about Banksy being arrested but a single call to the NYPD proved that he hadn’t. I personally think that people’s response to this message was Banksy’s art of the day. While people wondered (me included) about Banksy’s fate the Sirens of the Lambs and Ronald McDonald statue continued to tour the city. The “shoe shine boy” was threatened with a ticket for blocking a walkway at one stop.
On Thursday Banksy reappeared unscathed with a very daring piece (because of the location/high amount of foot traffic) on the side of Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club titled “Waiting in vain at the door of the club.” Banksy later added the message “For those of you wanting to know if this was a permission piece, it wasn’t.” The piece itself hits on obsession with watching Banksy himself thanks to the location of the piece - “He’s not a piece of meat!”, the “pornography” climate of media, loneliness (I wonder if Banksy is ever lonely being anonymous?), sadness and I suppose love or maybe lust. Banksy also left some evidence at the scene (See also). Any way, the Hustler club decided to cut it right off and hide it away.
Banksy’s Friday piece was a haunting Reaper in a bumper car on Elizabeth and Houston complete with an accordion player and Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” blasting as the crazed creation spun and shot sparks from it’s scythe. (The piece is based off an earlier Banksy painting.)
The piece was delayed for over an hour for unknown reasons and thanks to an ominous tarp and it’s location near a newly completed Swoon piece crowds began to form far ahead of it’s release time.
Banksy’s Saturday piece was the top image’s “The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet…” It remained untouched by other graffiti artists without security and was soon driven into a warehouse to be kept under cover and probably sold.
Banksy’s Sunday piece was suppose to be:
An article dismissing the Freedom Tower as a “Shyscraper” and an eyesore. Apparently a lot of New Yorkers agree with Banksy’s sentiments. Banksy’s appraisal as the art in the streets as the true beauty of New York and not the Freedom Tower is hard to argue with. ”This is the city’s true heritage - a city that made its name giving space to the mercurial and the brave.”
Since the Times didn’t publish the article, Banksy put up “This site contains blocked messages" over buffed graffiti as a response piece (see top) in Greenpoint. Hyperallergic’s Hrag Vartanian made a very nice observation that the piece can work on many levels seeing as how the image will (and has) undoubtedly been posted on many sites that censor many things. The piece, ironically, has been buffed over.
Yesterday, on Monday, Banksy’s piece was on Coney Island and is a robot with no title:
The barcode reads “132741-25” which people have theorized has something to do with human DNA. The piece had a metal gate installed over it by late afternoon.
Banksy’s piece from today was pretty exciting. (Image credit) Apparently 2 months ago a gentleman purchased the painting from Housing Works for around $50.00. Which is cool because it tells us Banksy was here, scouting things out that far in advance. The painting was quietly returned this morning with no one noticing and employees were later informed of it being there and to display it in the window. They’re currently auctioning it off for charity (Housing Works is a charity helping homelessness and AIDS). The current bid is $154,644 dollars… For a Nazi staring at a sunset.
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