Banksy’s new beaver stencil shows up in East New York, according to his official #BanksyNY site (all images via banksy.co.uk)
As a Canadian, I’m rather happy to see a beaver in New York, particularly on a day when Canadian author Alice Munro is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Yes, the work is a one-liner, yes, it will never survive the streets of NYC (has anyone tagged it yet?) but you can’t but admire the little critter and I do like the small pile of dirt the national symbol of Canada is standing on. Oh, Canada!
In the meantime, we’ll do our best impression of a coureur de bois and let you know as soon as we track down this diminutive Banksy’s whereabouts.
UPDATE, 1:36 pm: The work is at Bradford St and Pitkin Ave; a man on the scene, who says he walks by the spot everyday, mentioned that it must’ve gone up last night because he hasn’t seen it. Photos below.
(photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
(photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
(photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
(photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
UPDATE 2, 3:20pm: According to the chatter on Instagram, a number of men, who I encountered when I visited the site, have now covered up the Banksy and are asking people to pay them $5 for photos. American capitalism at work, people!
Update 3, 3:30pm: Walking and Typing may have uncovered another, as yet unannounced, Banksy truck piece (h/t Street Art News):
Update 4: The Gothamist is now reporting that price to photograph the East New York Banksy has been hiked to $20.
A part of me thinks it is awesome that they’re charging to see this. Banksy’s work is held in high esteem, if it were at the Whitney you would have to pay 25 dollars to view it. At least they’re recognizing the value and protecting it, even if it’s temporary.
And another part of me thinks it stinks because it defies the free visibility that street art is supposed to provide.
i think Banksy’s work is held in pretty low esteem, actually.
Depends who you ask. I’m guessing you mean in your circles?
No I mean he’s a bad artist, the art is lousy.
Another subjective opinion, but I actually think the video work was quite brilliant. The stencils feel fun but mostly hollow to me.
this is poseur bullshit and everybody knows it. It’s literally bad for people. Banksy’s “street art” inspiring the likes of you to accuse hapless working class citizens of East New York of being greedy capitalists, simply for trying to extract value, as recompense, from the publicity stunt heaped upon their neighborhood without permission in the name of who knows what. Subversion I guess. Cheap tricks.
woah lady, sounds like you just crawled out from under a troll bridge. In Downtown LA and we have a few works of banksy. Some of these works are nested in the doggiest parts of the area facing south central. Instead of some “working class citizen” charging people to see the work, folks have covered the pieces up with plexiglass so that they will be protected and enjoyed by all. These “working class citizens” are no better than the “working class citizens” in skid row that try to sell me “found” electronics on my way to work. they are hustling.
yeah guilty. I started this disqus thing to troll Hyperallergic I don’t really care.
Hi Jeri, we love your comments, but please don’t troll 😉 though I think you sound like you’re really interested in engaging in a conversation, which I very much appreciate.
I have to tell you, that covering street art (and there are many artists I prefer to Banksy for various reasons), I have never found an artist who appeals to a larger cross section of the public than Banksy. I’m not saying populism should be a barometer of quality, but he’s obviously speaking to a public that very much understands what he’s saying and loving it. I am very interested in what “that” exactly is, and for that reason he fascinates me to no end.
Many other artists may claim to be populist, but he truly achieves it.
There is a lot of artwork that I may not like, but that doesn’t diminish the relevance or acknowledgement that the work has received. The pieces on the Gaza wall were brilliant, the little rats that are stenciled everywhere seem trite.
Summarizing the entire body of work: there are a lot more home runs than strike outs.