
Banksy has spent the last month (1st-31st October) in the bright lights of New York City and has been entertaining the locals with his public intervention “Better Out Than In”, a show that is part scavenger hunt and part performance, with a new work popping up each day throughout the month of October, keeping the New Yorkers on their toes.
DAY 1 Banksy’s first piece “The Street is in Play” appeared near Manhattan’s Chinatown on Tuesday, October 1. located on Allen Street, between Hester and Canal, featuring his signature stencil style and the sign “Graffiti is a crime.” referring to what lies ahead!
DAY 2 The Banksy piece which appeared on October 2 in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. “This is My New York Accent” is located on West 25th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, referring to the NYC graffiti style. This may have ruffled a few writers as it got severely tagged!
DAY 3 Banksy’s third piece appeared on October 3 on 6th Avenue, New York. It depicts a dog urinating on a fire hydrant. Fire Hydrants appear all around New york.
DAY 4 Banksy turns regular graffiti into a musical! “Occupy! The Musical” was located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “Dirty Underwear The Musical” from Banksy’s Broadway makeover series appeared in Williamsburg on day 4. The second piece in Broadway was “Playground Mob The Musical” which appeared in Delancey.
DAY 5 Banksy converted the interior of an old delivery truck into a mobile garden “Mobile Waterfall”, featuring butterflies, a rainbow and a waterfall, and it toured all through Banksy’s residency in New York.
DAY 6, Banksy didn’t post any photos, instead uploading a video titled “Rebel Rocket Attack” on his YouTube channel. Banksy’s video seems to depict armed rebels shooting down enemy aircraft – until the object that tumbles out of the sky is revealed to be the Disney character Dumbo.
DAY 7 Banksy’s Floating Heart balloon covered in plasters was found in Brooklyn. “Battle to Survive a Broken Heart,” was located between King Street and Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, was disappointingly tagged over by a rival street artist.
DAY 8 Banksy’s fake “Plato” quote was found on a blue door in Greenpoint.
DAY 9 Banksy new piece features horses wearing night vision goggles. It was found in the Lower East Side. The mural was painted onto a car and truck on Ludlow Street. “Night Vision Horses” shows a shootout between armed men, as greek gods and horses.
DAY 10 Banksy paints a beaver eating away at the wood of a broken street sign reading No Parking Anytime sign in East New York.
DAY 11 Banksy’s truck on the move called, “The Sirens of the Lambs”, the truck started in the Meatpacking District and was filled with stuffed animals and a soundtrack of squealing animals could be heard as it toured the city for two weeks.
DAY 12 Banksy paints “Concrete Confessional” on East 7th Street and Cooper Square.
DAY 13 Banksy set up a stall in Central Park selling original signed canvasses for $60 each (or £37). Much of the work went unsold, and the three people who bought the artwork were unaware of the extensive value of the pieces when they purchased them!
Day 14 Banksy’s piece ‘What we do in life echoes in Eternity’ is being washed away by a cleaner, this may have been a witty response to all his works being defaced since the start of the show! Located on 68th Street and 38th Avenue in Queens.
DAY 15 Banksy paid tribute to the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in Tribeca. With the red flower representing the explosion.
DAY 16 Banksy’s latest piece is a fibreglass Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined by a poor boy with holes in his clothes. It was first found in the South Bronx, and was outside a different McDonalds every lunchtime over the week.
NEWS FLASH!! The New York Post reported on their front page that the New York Police Department were searching for Banksy and are looking to charge him for vandalism. It also reported that any of his works on public property will be removed.
“I don’t believe what I read in the papers”. Banksy
DAY 17 a piece appeared of two Japanese-dressed women on a bridge with a Bonsai tree using the architecture’s detail. This piece was in Bed-Study.
DAY 18 Banksy’s outdoor exhibition on ‘gallery row’, Chelsea, New York City. The two works are collaborations with Brazilian artists, Os Gemêos.
DAY 19 Banksy’s puts a cryptic and provocative video on youtube video shows ants moving in and out of a hole, which is revealed to be the painted parts of a lady.
DAY 20 This Banksy piece was located on 79th Street, just east of Broadway, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “Hammer Boy” depicts a child hitting the fire warning with a hammer like the high striker game found at fairs. Cleverly making use of the surroundings.
DAY 21 The piece shows a schoolboy spray-painting a message on a wall with the aid of his butler who serves spray cans on a silver platter to a little boy writing “GHETTO 4 LiFE”. It was located at 153 Street and Elton Avenue.
DAY 22 Banksy’s installment ‘Everything but the kitchen Sphinx’, is a sculpture of the Great Sphinx of Giza. According to the artist, it is a ‘1/36 scale replica made from smashed cinderblocks.
DAY 23 After numerous reports that the New York Police Department were looking to charge Banksy with vandalism for the Better Out Than In residency, this notice was posted…
DAY 24 Banksy posted a young man waiting outside Hell’s Kitchen with a limp bunch of red flowers, with the caption “Waiting in Vain…at the door of the club” on the rolling metal grille of the Hustler Club on the West Side Highway.
DAY 25 Banksy announced on his website that the piece would be posted at 5pm. Then it was 6pm. Located on Elizabeth and Houston Street in the former location of Billy’s Antiques, the work was an interactive grim reaper in a bumper car.
DAY 26 Banksy’s van was graffitied with ‘The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet’ and located in the Sunset Park neighbourhood of Brooklyn. So stay happy!!
DAY 27 Banksy published his New York Times piece on his own website after The New York Times refused to print it.
DAY 28 This Banksy piece showed up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn “this site contains blocked messages.” Referring to the newspaper refusal of his artwork.
DAY 28 Banksy’s spray painting robot tagging a barcode appeared in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
DAY 29 Banksy vandalised a painting from Housing works store by adding in a Nazi officer to a landscape painting. He then returned the stolen painting, now entitled “The banality of the banality of evil”, to the thrift store where it was displayed in 23rd Street. Housing Works promptly got it ready for auction, where it fetched $615,000.
DAY 30 Banksy’s penultimate artwork was found across the street from the Yankee stadium, at Macombs Dam Bridge and Jerome Avenue. Banksy’s website describes it as “Bronx Zoo (at Yankee Stadium)” a stencil of a leopard with messages in the patterning including a peace sign, NY, and a shout out to street artist Cope.
DAY 31 The final day of his residency in NYC, Banksy tagged his name in inflatable bubble letters, along with the graffiti bubble writing, which he named “Inflatable Throw-Up,” on a building in Queens. The audio guide that accompanied this piece were the artist’s thoughts on the residency in NYC in general.
“And that’s it, Thanks for your patience. It’s been fun. Save 5pointz. Bye.” Banksy
Photo credit Banksy