As reported on The Verge.
By Verge Staff
Acclaimed street artist Banksy has crossed the pond from his native UK, and is now leaving his marks all around New York City. Since October 1st, he’s created upwards of 10 pieces as part of his month-long “residency” (to borrow a term from the professional art world), titled “Better Out Than In.” Banksy’s playful work often offers social or political commentary, and he hasn’t limited himself to sidewalks and walls in New York — he’s already created two mobile pieces on trucks. Many of the New York pieces include mock audio guides that poke fun at the recorded messages offered to museum-goers, which are also available online.
Banksy’s work by its very nature is ephemeral — property owners often paint over it, or opportunistic looters extract it from the streets and sell it for vast sums, sometimes even chiseling it out of exterior walls. The short shelf-life of Banksy’s work has never been more visible than here in New York. A little less than halfway through his tour of the Big Apple, local graffiti artists and property owners have already altered his first few pieces dramatically with their own marks. See the biggest transformations below. — Photography by William Mansell.
Hint: Use the ‘s’ and ‘d’ keys to navigate
-
THE STREET IS IN PLAY
The first work Banksy threw up on October 1st at Allen and Canal Street in Manhattan. It’s since been tagged over several times. See the original here.
-
WESTSIDE
Completed October 2nd at 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue, the piece known as “Westside,” started out as white on gray, but has acquired an explosion of color from local graffiti artists. See the original here.
-
OCCUPY, THE MUSICAL
Painted October 4th at Stanwix and Melrose in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It’s since been painted over, but the faded outline of his work is still visible, just barely. The original is much clearer.
-
BROOKLYN
This painting of a heart-shaped balloon was completed October 7th, then tagged over by local graffiti artists, before someone put a plastic barrier up to prevent further scrawls. It’s located at King Street and Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
-
LOWER EAST SIDE
This simply titled work was completed October 9th. It is located as its name suggests in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Ludlow Street, between Stanton and Rivington Streets, is one of Banksy’s most elaborate yet, spreading from the wall onto a car nearby. The accompanying audio comes from “Collateral Murder,” the military footage showing soldiers gunning down civilians in Iraq from a helicopter, first posted online in 2010 by Wikileaks. Looters have since taken the rear left door and the front left mirror. The front door is also unable to close, as The Verge‘s Sam Sheffer notes.
-
YOU COMPLETE ME
Completed October 3rd at 24th Street and 6th Avenue, Midtown Manhattan. There were some tags already on the wall before Banksy marked it, but more have been added since. See the original here.
-
GREENPOINT
On October 8th, Banksy originally painted a satirical quote, deliberately misattributed to Plato, on this door in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, between Provost Street and McGuinness Boulevard. Someone painted it over completely and offered their own satirical retort.
-
CONCRETE CONFESSIONAL
Banksy’s latest work, completed October 12th, is “Concrete Confessional,” a stencil of a priest peering through an actual concrete window cutout, located at East 7th Street and Cooper Square in Manhattan’s East Village. It has yet to be defaced. Update: As noted by The Verge‘s Sam Sheffer, the mural has now been defaced.