Banksy + 5: October 4th

Banksy
Banksy. Photo from banksyny.com.

Today’s new Banksy pieces are my favorite so far of Better Out Than In, his month-long series of works in NYC. Today three new pieces appeared on the project site in a series described on the website as “Random graffiti given a Broadway makeover (an ongoing series).” Banksy has shown time and time again that he is great at placing his works in interesting locations and playing with the existing environment. These are the first pieces of Better Out Than In that have shown that off. These Broadway pieces were located on the Lower East Side and in Williamsburg, but one has already been buffed.

AnimalNY reports that at least one of the pieces may have been painted 3 days ago and has locations for all of the pieces. If we trust the metadata in Banksy’s photos (which can be tweaked), the photos were taken yesterday (can’t say exactly when because it’s unclear what time zone the camera’s internal clock is set for), so Banksy would have painted the pieces and then waited more than a day to photograph them (or at least one of them). But we are relying on two assumptions here: 1. AnimalNY’s source is accurate, and 2. The metadata in the photos is accurate. Sidenote: Other random metadata includes that Banksy or his photographer generally use a Nikon D60 and edit photos on a Mac using Photoshop CS4.

Check out the other two Broadway stencils at the end of this post. First, today’s + 5. This afternoon we have work by DOT DOT DOT (another great example of placement), Peter Fuss, Ludo, SP-38 and Francisco de Pajaro aka Art Is Trash (whose piece is actually somewhat similar to today’s Banksy pieces):

DOT DOT DOT in Bodø, Norway. Photo by All Rights Destroyed.
DOT DOT DOT in Bodø, Norway. Photo by All Rights Destroyed.
Peter Fuss in Gdynia, Poland. Photo by Peter Fuss.
Peter Fuss in Gdynia, Poland. Photo by Peter Fuss.
"Biohazard" in Paris, France by Ludo. Phoot by Ludo.
“Biohazard” in Paris, France by Ludo. Phoot by Ludo.
SP-38 in Berlin, Germany. Photo by aesthetics of crisis.
SP-38 in Berlin, Germany. Photo by aesthetics of crisis.
Art is Trash. Photo by Dave "NoLions" Stuart.
Francisco de Pajaro aka Art is Trash in London, UK. Photo by Dave “NoLions” Stuart.

And now those other two great Banksy pieces:

Banksy. Photo from banksyny.com.
Banksy. Photo from banksyny.com.
Banksy. Photo from banksyny.com.
Banksy. Photo from banksyny.com.

Photos by All Rights Destoryed, Peter Fuss, Ludo, aesthetics of crisis and Dave “NoLions” Stuart and taken from banksyny.com

Francisco de Pajaro’s art/rubbish

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Editor’s note: I’m excited to have this guest post by Dave Nolionsinengland. Dave is a photographer, blogger, tour guide and one of my favorite street art people in London. – RJ

Street art is at its best when it is unexpected, uncurated and just there for the hell of it, no commercial agenda at all. London is currently blessed with the ultimate in ephemeral street art courtesy of Francisco de Pajaro, it’s rubbish, literally. A collection of bin bags, some discarded cardboard boxes or other dumped detritus, a wash of paint and marker pen and trash is transformed into street art. This is “Art Is Trash” by Francisco.

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We chanced across “Art Is Trash” at work in Shoreditch last Sunday, un-fazed by the scrutiny of visitors and photography workshop camera fiddlers alike. The Art Is Trash figures look a bit worried, intimidated, perhaps scared of our hostility towards them. de Pajaro’s figures humanise the trash. We despise the rubbish we create, we can’t get rid of it quick enough so his figures draw attention to our relationship with the final step in the life cycle of consumer products. At the same time Francisco is directing our attention to the disposability of art, literally all art is doomed, it IS trash.

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This art has a tendency to act like a magnet for other dumped crap, it’s a wonderful metaphor for huge swathes of the gallery world, isn’t it? The trash then gets cleaned up by the bin men pretty quick. de Pajaro is putting his street art out with the bins and it barely lasts a day. That’s perfect street art.

It’s not just anthropomorphization though, we love his bin bag lizard.  He also finds cracks in our buildings, little nook and crannies which he fills with stick figures. He doesn’t hang around, he just gets in there and does it.

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Photos by Dave Nolionsinengland