I have always been a fan of the anonymous artist turned international sensation Banksy. He has been on my list of artists to go and actually see their work for a very long time. There have been many different pieces he has worked on and some that have turned up in weird places over the years. In fact, I remember that there are so many places in Brazil and in the UK where his street art is famous and have been talked about in Newspapers and many countless weblogs including Gawker. That being said, when I learned that he was in NY and was opening up a gallery, I was thrilled. I was also very interested to see that there were also rats, 3 really big rats, around town that had different themes. My favorite was the rat that had a t-shirt that had the “I LOVE NY” theme. He was more here for an installation called the “Village Pet shop and Grill”
I felt that the Rat was a poignant example of raunchy NYC artsy flair. There was a raw passion in the images. The images evoked a more primal thought than other images and also brought you into a world where a rat wearing a t-shirt would not be absurd. There were others also such as the rat that was wearing a suit, which I felt was also saying a lot about the workforce in NYC and also the nature of our existence here. Living and seeing art in New York, you don’t really see people taking such a crass approach to show who they think live in the city nor do they put them in such a iconic yet mocking position. Rats have been correlated with NYC for a long time, and no art that I have seen has shown that. I think that Banksy sure knows how to capture the cultural cues where his art is shown. This is more shown in the art that he does abroad where they show poverty and one picture where he shows a sniper aiming at a school.
The pet shop installation was a very interesting concept. It was actually hot dogs, sausages and leopard print jackets that moved like regular animals. Who would have thought to show such weird things? Banksy not only captured my attention with the surreal but he also made a statement about what we are eating these days and age. The only thing that I think this installation was missing was a reason for it all. Plus, I never ventured too far into the gallery so I never saw the grill or I might have missed it. In fact, I would have loved to see the animals on the grill itself, even if that sounds horrible and heartless.
My work is just a very different sort of work. In fact I don’t’ really think I would like to do installations. However, I think that there are some lessons that can be learned from the installation itself. The whole time I was there I was just thinking about how surreal that it was. The “animals” were so realistic and it carried the surreal feeling that I am trying to communicate in my piece of the moment. I think that Banksy, even though he has inspired me before, I can take something away from his petshop installation. There is a simplicity to his art, there is a brash, kind of obvious statement that he makes that I think I should also start to make. I think his obviously absurd installation is what makes it so memorable and so wonderful for me to view and to experience.
This gallery was a very interesting experience in which I not only saw a gallery but I was exposed to his work a long time coming. I have read about and have visited his website many times. I think that this installation is such an amazing exhibition of his talent that I would love to see more from him. I would also like to find out who he really is, but isn’t that the true measure of an artist? Banksy is an artist that does his art mostly for the enjoyment and less for the actual direct praise from his fans.