Tagged: street art

Weak Stream? Banksy in NYC 2013


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I thought the tag above the dogs leg read “My second tat was a Bansy” (sic)

I’m a fan of street artist Banksy, so I was happy when I heard he was doing a new show on the streets of NYC called Better Out Than In.  I’m not sure what to make of his latest public swindle but it’s fun to see it  unfold.  At first, the work seems sub-par, maybe on purpose.  Who knows with this guy?  People are talking and it’s cute to see a Banksy buzz sweep the city.  One thing about Banksy is that lovers and haters seem to argue the same points about him.  He’s a cheat and a troublemaker.  The New York Times take him pretty seriously.   I personally think a lot of his stuff is memorable.  And of course, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a classic motion picture.

The audio companions to the work in this series are hilarious. If anything, you should check those out.

His art sometimes seems to explicitly ask to be defaced.  Or maybe his crew are doing it themselves?  The first piece on Allen Street in Chinatown was almost instantly erased and then semi-restored by somebody. The second one (a bad NYC accent joke) seemed really terrible and also lasted about a day.  Cheers to the next several weeks.

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People snapping pics of the latest Banksy on 24th Street near 6th Ave

Horribly Defaced “Masstransiscope” Restored Again

In late 2012, I stopped looking at the amazing moving mural behind the grates in the Dekalb Tunnel because it had been horribly vandalized/tagged.  It was the last cool thing you’d see before the Q train crossed over the Manhattan Bridge into Disneyland and your day filled with buzzwords, acronyms, dumb branded websites, advertising, and even worse bullshit that all of that.  This live animation by artist Bill Brand never got old but after it happened I mostly opted to stand on the south side of the train, with the view the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.  Nothing to sneeze at either.  I’m not sure when the mural was fixed because it was too depressing to look at after the damage was done.  Apparently it was restored in 2008 too, probably for the same reasons.

Who knew? It’s back!  Take the Q or the B train from Brooklyn into Manhattan and check it out.  Look to the right side of the train after it leaves the Dekalb station.