Banksy Does New York Page #2

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painted it, look at that.

- This is where it was.

- Amazing.

And then the "y" was right here.

Hello.

You're standing somewhere

in New York City

and looking at a delivery truck

that is delivering calm.

Please rest awhile and enjoy the view.

We just found out

that it could be on St. Mark's and...

Second or third.

- ...second or third.

- Yeah.

We're headed there now.

I'm shaking!

Julia.

Yeah?

Found it!

Can you imagine...

The coolest part is,

is that this guy

is hanging out here somewhere.

Or one of his associates

is hanging out...

They're watching the truck, yeah.

They're watching that truck, right?

It's basically a giant diorama.

And I could kind of care less

'cause I can to go

the natural history museum

and see a silly diorama.

But you listen to the audio guide,

and he's like, "this truck

is delivering calm

all throughout New York City."

Well, he was delivering chaos.

It never once delivered calm.

It was driving a banksy around the city

and hordes of people following it.

No one was there and thinking,

"oh, I'm so relaxed."

Everyone was there, saying,

"got to get in, get my picture.

How do I... aah!"

So, this is on St. Mark's place.

Meet me at the station

meet me 'bout half past 9:00

Banksy is at it again.

All right, banksy strikes again.

He tagged a truck

that cruised around the village.

Folks, brace yourself

'cause... the British are coming?

The British are coming.

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

So, today's banksky is a video.

Today's banksky is a video.

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Banksy really understands the necessity

to make narratives simple

for the mainstream media.

The video piece

that obviously had a reference

to "dumbo"...

The story of dumbo also was connected...

It came out around

the time of world war ii.

"Dumbo" was the code name

used for the u. S. Navy

during the '40s and '50s

to signify search-and-rescue mission.

The purpose of dumbo missions

was to rescue downed American aviators,

as well as seamen in distress.

Allahu akbar!

That video with dumbo

getting shot, right?

And if you look at that audio...

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

...that was actual audio

of militants taking a rocket launcher

and shooting down a real helicopter.

So, while we're all saying like, "oh,

childhood innocence is kind of, like,

cute but sad and whatever, video,"

that was the sound

of somebody actually dying.

Allahu akbar!

The helium balloon,

an object of such poetry,

its lightness, its fragility,

its way of wandering on a breeze.

It's an uplifting visual poem

to that most fragile of human emotions.

Oh, brother.

Such a juxtaposition, then,

is a common theme for this artist.

Or, to put it another way,

he just keeps repeating himself.

So, this piece, I think,

was put up there to be

an interactive piece, you know,

because it's, "there's always hope,"

the stencil, the girl with the balloon.

As soon as I saw it,

I was like, "all right,

I hope a little girl shows up

so I can get a shot."

You know, everybody wants to get

a shot that nobody else has.

And I was trying

to do it as quickly as possible

so everybody else who was there

wouldn't get the same shot.

I really loved how much

the audience participation

was a part of this show.

The bandaged heart balloon piece...

You had to stand in front of that piece.

Yes, you had to take a picture, sure.

So, Instagram, yay.

But you had to stand there

to activate the piece.

This piece is obviously

an iconic representation

of the battle to survive a broken heart.

I knew you were gonna do that sh*t, man.

Just in time.

Yeah, it's called spot-jocking.

You put your name or piece

next to somebody else's

who's, like, more famous than you

because everybody who looks at that

or takes a picture of that one

is also gonna get you.

First week, you saw people

tagging major pieces by banksy.

It was a call-and-response.

It was banksy saying,

"New York, here I am."

It was other graffiti artists

saying, "hear you loud and clear."

Yeah.

People had negative reactions

to his work getting ragged

by graffiti writers,

and people who wanted to rag his work...

They're all part

of the performance, you know?

It's like performance art.

It's like epic street theater.

Within the street-art community,

there are a lot of graffiti artists

who think that banksy is a poser,

that he's sold out,

that he is not authentic anymore

because of his notoriety.

I mean, it plays into this

"street art versus graffiti" divide.

There's a feeling

that graffiti is prosecuted

much more aggressively than street art,

graffiti is something that's bad.

So, you got this whole

sweltering sort of undertone

that already exists,

and in plops banksy.

Mine, mine, mine is on the inside

mine, mine, mine is on the inside

mine, mine, mine is on the inside

I don't really like you,

but I like you on the inside

Banksy comes from a sort of

traditional graffiti background.

Graffiti... it starts the story.

It's the original street art.

New York is the holy grail

of street artists and graffiti writers,

and I think there were a lot

of factors in New York

that made it important,

one of which was the fact that

there was a lot of empowerment

for marginal voices

in the '70s in New York.

There was also a strong art community.

There was also a strong

community of protest

that was going on in this city.

So, all these factors

sort of became this cocktail

that really, you know,

birthed the movement.

We didn't have art programs back then.

We didn't have sports programs

back then.

So, if you were competitive

and if you were an artist,

the trains were like

a giant beacon for you.

5 pointz is really

one of the rare locations

in the city of New York

where writers and graffiti artists

can come together and really

explore their talents,

collaborate.

And people from around the world

would come to New York

to visit it as a landmark.

And you pass it on the train,

and it's got that old,

gritty, industrial, wild sense

that New York had much more

at a point in time in the past.

But it's private property.

A developer acquired it

with plans to change it.

The largest legal

aerosol outlet in the u. S.,

quite possibly the world.

It was about artists

coming in and telling the story.

This is the difference between

public art and Times Square.

Banksy... his quote was,

"New York calls to graffiti writers

like a dirty, old lighthouse."

And it's true.

It's the birthplace of graffiti.

Of course banksy chose New York,

the midwife of graffiti.

So, I think an artist like banksy

really needed a little bit

of that credit.

Back in red hook,

the owners of the building

with the red balloon

decided to play it safe

and put up plexiglas

to prevent any more graffiti

on top of the graffiti.

Fans now waiting to see

what tomorrow will bring,

if it brings anything banksy at all.

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