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#BanksyNY 12: “Concrete Confessional” in the East Village


October 12, 2013 | Bucky Turco

A day after rolling out his “Sirens of the Lambs” truck, Banksy gets back to stenciling and strikes theological overtones with the newest piece in his ongoing series. It’s called “Concrete Confessional” and is located within a concrete block on 7th Street off of Cooper Square in the East Village, right across the street from the First Ukrainian Assembly of God. More photos in the gallery above. (Photos: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork)

UPDATE: ANIIMAL reader Antigrav appears to have tracked down the source image for this stencil. The photo was shot by famed lensman Berni Schoenfield in the 1950s and was posted as the “Photograph of the Day” by The Telegraph in 2009. According to the paper, it depicts a Jesuit priest at the Martyr’s Shrine in Ontario:

Taken in 1955, near Midland in Ontario, this photograph shows a Jesuit priest hearing confession at a site commemorating the first missionaries in Huron county. They arrived in 1626 intending to convert the Iriquois but were martyred ten years later.

Here’s a GIF of the original photo overlaid with Banksy’s.

Banksy's "Concrete Confessional'
(GIF: Antigrav/Photo: Berni Schoenfield)