October was a busy month for Banksy who was touring the streets of New York while mass producing. Each day another outdoor piece was shared on the artist's website.
His Better Out Than In project is illustrated by a quote of Cézanne: "All pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as those done outside."
The artist used different media such as installations, stencils, videos, sculptures and performances.
He converted a delivery truck into a mobile garden with butterflies, a waterfall and a rainbow. One of the traveling installations was entitled Sirens of the Lambs and featured a traveling slaughterhouse delivery truck filled with stuffed animals. A real boy was shining the shoes of a fiberglass Ronald McDonald in the South Bronx, a sculpture of a Sphinx was placed in Queens and a video of ants evolving into a vulva was shown in Staten Island.
Banksy set up a stall to sell original artworks for sixty dollars each and put a jpeg on his website which can be used to make one's own Banksy New York residency souvenir T shirt.
He said goodbye to New York with a balloon throw-up on the Long Island Expressway and asked the public to save 5pointz, an outdoor urban art exhibit space in Long Island City.
Truly: at first the project seemed to be a massive media stunt but one might agree that the concept, the creativity and the used techniques show the artistic abilities of this street artist who criticizes consumerism.
Banksy in Gent next?!
The New York Times opted not to publish this letter from Banksy, stating that the WTC building is an eyesore. |