Banksy’s recent “I remember when all this was trees” piece in Detroit has been removed. Immediately after noticing the street art, the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios descended into the crumbled Packard plant area, dug out the wall in two days and moved it via forklift to their gallery space. Whether or not they’re “thieves” or “stewards,” they’re definitely silly. This is one of Banksy’s more site-specific works. They might be “preserving” a brick wall or its price tag, but probably not the piece as it was meant to be. |Freep|
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Detroit Gallery Preserves Banksy By Stealing It
By Marina Galperina |
6 Responses to “Detroit Gallery Preserves Banksy By Stealing It”
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this is shyte…effin' galleries.
Lame is what it is…
whatever, they can have it, i'm over Banksy and there's nothing too great about this piece …
@big_al: I agree, bored to death of banksy…its just the point.
While I don't like graffi "art". Its about 50 cement blocks added sometime after Studebaker-Packard Corporation sold the historic plant when it left in the late 1950's. Thats about $60 in new cement blocks.
The piece is about suburban sprawl. Why don't we stop that? It would solve a lot of issues. Next you know Redford, Livonia, Warren will look like this area as new businesses and homes are continually built in the next new areas like New Hudson, Plymouth Twp, Shelby Twp. Someday Novi will be a derelict suburb?
The picture does not show the rest of the wall, and the tree that was next to it when it was painted. The shape of the ruined wall, now destroyed, was most likely part of what attracted Banksy. They only have a piece of the artwork. It's like cutting out the face of the Mona Liza and selling it. I doubt it has any value in its vandalized form. Sadly if the art was left in place it could have been incorporated into whatever might have been built in the future. Or relocated in a more responsible manner.
555 Nonprofit Gallery, Yeah right, non profit, except the principals earn a living or are trying to establish a reputation by doing it.
On the other hand, the circus surrounding Banksy is part of his allure. It is nice to see people think enough about his art to travel to a dangerous site in a dangerous neighborhood of a dangerous city to do something as ridiculous as chisel out a ton of cinder block wall and transport it somewhere. The 'treasure of the sierra madre' comes to mind.