No added preservative
In 2010 I made a piece of artwork that asked the question should street art be preserved? if so how should it be perserved?
Banksy’s “Choose Your Weapon”, also called CYW, first appeared on a The Grange wall in Bermondsey, London, in 2010. The mural combined Banksy’s stencil style figure with a barking dog on a chain. It is a take on the disaffected youth of Britain. The dog, which pays tribute to Keith Haring’s ‘Barking Dog’, is a man’s best friend and in this case, it acts as the man’s weapon. social commentary that addresses the trend of disaffected youth owning aggressive dogs as weapons – an issue that was receiving a lot of media attention at the time. For Banksy, his weapon is street art. As the saying goes the pen is mightier than the sword.
Back then a new Banksy street piece would curate lots of hype on the Banksy forum see original thread here. The forum provided an almost minute by minute up to date account of the artwork its location and its evolution. Within days of the artworks appearance a large sheet of perspex was installed to cover the artwork for preservation purposes. Leaving me with the question Should street art be preserved?. My response to this was the creation of “No added preservative” the piece of art depicted a Banksy style rat that had been squashed behind a sheet of perspex with the caption no added preservative. The rat was painted to the back of the perspex and placed next to the Banksy the night after it was preserved. This piece of art caused quite a stir on the forum with speculation that it may have been created by Banksy himself, see here. After announcing responsibility I made a small pocket size book titled “how to fake a Banksy” and sold it along with a duplicate version of No added preservative rat on perspex…. I wonder if both these items still exist and where they are now?
I Later went on to make an limited edition run of screen prints. 50 x Grey background, 50 x White background , 2 x A/P Pink , 2 x A/P blue text. These sold out fast and occasionally pop up on the secondary market and in urban art auctions.
My original street piece was very quickly taken from the street, Banksy’s artwork suffered the same fate a few months later and was cut from the wall and removed, which sparks a whole new debate. Should street art be removed from the Street?
