A cosmetically-inclined caged bunny self-tests. Outside, Banksy sits and awaits his first customer of the day…

Street art aficionados and cynical phenomenologists (we don’t know any of those) have been long awaiting SIR BANKSY’s official New York debut but surely even the most imaginative punter couldn’t have guessed that the Bristol Bad Boy’s first show in the Apple would come in the form of a mock pet store with nothing inside for sale. That’s exactly what the “street art” king’s adoring public got, however, when the doors to “The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” opened at 89 7th Avenue (between Bleeker and West 4th) last Thursday, October 9th, revealing what seemed from the outside to be a small West Village pet shop stocked not with purring kittens and wiggly puppies, but a more sinister menagerie. Inside, animatronic chicken nuggets, porno watching monkeys, coexisted alongside ageing tweety birds, swimming fish sticks, and suggestively writing caged hot dogs, in what can only be described as an entirely unique visual critique of the state of animal husbandry in the modern world. In the words of Banksy himself, “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art.” The show is open for viewing from 10am—12am daily and remains on view until Halloween. Click HERE to read the NY Times review of the show. Meanwhile, HAVE A LOOK:

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Art & Commerce, Art Crimes, Banksy, Feature, Graffiti, NYC, News, Street Art, Video, art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.