Creative Pulls A ‘Banksy’, Hijacks Paintings By The Famous Anonymous Artist
Image via The Art of Banksy
The Art of Banksy, an exhibit touted as the “world’s largest” collection of Banksy’s creations, has received heavy criticism for being a ticketed event, when the painter ironically perpetually frowns upon capitalism.
To underscore the elusive artist’s viewpoints about the commercial world, Toronto-based film and television creative Tharanga Ramanayake decided to slip his own installation into the gallery, much like how Banksy inserted paintings in NYC museums back in 2005.
“Banksy once went to a museum and put up his work on the wall, so I put up my own stuff on the walls of the #Banksy exhibit,” Ramanayake tweeted.
The only difference was this creative didn’t pull the stunt anonymously.
Ramanayake titled his piece Free-For-All, which sits in front of the Trolley Hunters paintings and comprises a roadblock requesting for CA$35 (US$27)—the exhibit’s admission fee.
Next to the artwork is its write-up, which reads, “Theft is bringing street art inside and then charging an admission fee.”
While the piece is nearly as audacious as Banksy’s graffiti work, the event’s organizers aren’t lauding it as much.
Taking to Facebook, The Art of Banksy wrote that while the act was “clearly a homage” to Banksy’s impromptu installation of paintings in galleries over a decade ago, it emphasized that the pieces put on display were borrowed from private collections, and were not taken from free-to-view public spaces.
“Our exhibit consists entirely of art that Banksy designed for exhibits, and which he himself has sold to private collectors to fund the work he does in the public domain. Our artwork, owned by international collectors, consists of sculptures, prints, original paintings and massive canvases which are rarely exhibited to the general public.”
It added that its security footage caught Ramanayake “enjoying” Banksy’s work for a good hour before “attempting to ‘enhance’ our carefully curated collection.”
Bansky once went to a museum and put up his work on the wall, so I put up my own stuff on the walls of the #banksy exhibit. #gurrillaart #art #streetart #graffiti #illustration pic.twitter.com/ABXoEseyCh
— THARANGA RAMANAYAKE (@THARANGA_R) July 4, 2018
“FREE-FOR-ALL”, shows a road leading to street art. (An image of Trolly Hunters, which was reported stolen earlier). It also shows a road closed sign with an admission tag for $35. The slate reads : "Theft is bringing street art inside and then charging an admission fee."
— THARANGA RAMANAYAKE (@THARANGA_R) July 4, 2018
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = ‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.0’;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
We can confirm that yesterday, a patron at The Art of Banksy tried to hang a piece of his own art in our exhibit. This…
Posted by The Art of Banksy on Wednesday, July 4, 2018
[via The AV Club, images via various sources]