Map of all the Banksy locations in his residency “Better Out Than In”
We followed Banksy every day of his residency “Better Out Than In” in NYC, so we figured we would put together all of his pieces into one article, along with a map of locations. Without further ado, all 31 days for you to take in, marvel, judge, and do with what you will.
The first of Banksy’s month-long show, “The Street is in Play” (photo above) is located on Allen Street, between Hester and Canal, featuring his signature stencil style and the sign “Graffiti is a crime.”
Day 2: This is My New York Accent…normally I write like this
“Occupy! The Musical” was located in Bushwick, Brooklyn before it was taken down. There were two other “The Musical” locations: Dirty Underwear and Playground Mob. Al three were found pieces of graffiti, onto which Banksy added “The Musical” to.
“Battle to Survive a Broken Heart,” located between King Street and Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, was defaced by a rival street artist by the name of Omar.
Painted onto a car and truck on Ludlow Street between Stanton and Rivington Streets, “Night Vision Horses” depicts a shootout between armed men and horses.
The “Sirens of the Lambs” truck started (fittingly) in the Meatpacking District. Filled with stuffed animals and a soundtrack of squealing animals, it toured the city for two weeks.
On the same day as Concrete Confessional, Banksy set up a stand just next to Central Park South with signed pieces of his spray art for sale. Only three people bought, and one negotiated a 50% discount.
Located on 68th Street and 38th Avenue in Queens, just off the 7 Train, the text reads “What we do in life echoes in Eternity,” as a man begins to wipe it off the wall. The quote is from Maximus in Gladiator, which is a variation from the original by Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and philosopher who said “What we do now echoes in eternity.”
Banksy created a fiberglass replica of a Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined by a real person outside a McDonald’s in the South Bronx. The sculpture (plus the actor) traveled to a different McDonalds at lunchtime for the next week.
This Banksy piece was located on 79th Street, just east of Broadway, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “Hammer Boy” depicts a child playing the high striker or strongman game commonly found at carnivals.
Banksy headed to the South Bronx with some sharp social commentary in his stencil work. A butler-like man serves spray cans on a platter to a little boy writing “GHETTO 4 LiFE” on a gray wall. It was located at 153 Street and Elton Avenue.
We have to admit,” Everything but the Kitchen Sphinx” is pretty clever–although Americans don’t always think puns are as funny as the Brits and Europeans. This was a 1/36 scale replica of the great Sphinx of Giza made from smashed cinderblocks.
Without any additional commentary on the day prior’s “police activity,” Banksy posted his latest from Hell’s Kitchen with the caption “Waiting in Vain…at the door of the club” on the rolling metal grille of the Hustler Club on the West Side Highway in Hell’s Kitchen. The Hustler Club promptly removed the piece for safekeeping, though did not have any intention to sell.
Banksy kept everyone in wait on Day 25, posting in the morning that the piece wouldn’t go up until 5pm. Then it was 6pm. Located on Elizabeth and Houston Street in the former location of Billy’s Antiques, the work was an interactive version of Banksy’s prior piece “Brace Yourself,” of a grim reaper in a bumper car replete with fog machines and an accordion player.
This Banksy piece showed up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: a white message on greyed out background that reads “this site contains blocked messages.” He gave us an interesting detail about this piece on his website saying, “Today’s piece was going to be an op-ed column in the New York Times. But they declined to publish what I supplied.” The op-ed about the architecture of 1 WTC was nonetheless published on Bansky’s website–read it here.
Banksy hit up Coney Island with this whimsical robot tagging a barcode after two days of predominantly text pieces. Though we thought the bird was originally part of the artwork, turns out, it was real.
On Banksy’s third to last day of his residency, he took a painting from Housing Works, added a Nazi officer gazing at an idealized landscape in the Hudson River School style, and re-donated it back to the thrift store with his signature. Housing Works promptly got it ready for auction, where it took in $615,000.
At around 6:30pm, Banksy shared his piece for Day 30 near Yankee Stadium, seemingly in homage to the Bronx Zoo. While it was unclear whether it was a leopard, cheetah or something else, what was clear is that there are messages in the cat’s patterning including a peace sign, “NY”, a shout out to street artist Cope.
On the final day of his residency in NYC, Banksy tagged his name in inflatable bubble letters, which he’s calling “Inflatable Throw-Up,” on a building in Queens, making his final mark on New York City. The audio guide however said the most about this piece in Queens, along with the artist’s thoughts on the residency in NYC in general.
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of The Art Spy (HarperOne, forthcoming) Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. michelleyoungwriter.com
Photo via Banksy Instagram.
Image via BanksyNY.
