Joe Winkler observes the fallout from Banksy’s month-long New York campaign and argues those attempting to preserve or restore the art are missing the point:
In the last two weeks, owners of buildings with Banksy art have taken to hiring guards, putting up plexiglass, rolling gates, and ropes to create lines, all of which is practical and perhaps understandable but undermines much of the purpose of these 30 days. All of these protections simply turn these outdoors, public pieces into indoor museum pieces, introducing a sterility that subverts the spirit of the project. These tactics isolate the art from the bustling environment. The viewer becomes passive, just another viewer waiting in line, no longer a participant. From a theoretical perspective, this all seems backwards. The owners of the building, from the perspective of the actual graffiti art, ought to hold no more rights than the community in deciding what to do with the graffiti.
Meanwhile, NPR interviewed a woman whose building in Williamsburg was tagged by Banksy. Her thoughts:
It leaves us in a sticky place … he’s putting artwork on our wall that now we’re expected either to protect or let it be destroyed, and we can’t sell it. And we don’t necessarily want to sell it; we don’t know yet. But I have been approached by a gallerist, and this is something that this gallery specializes in. They could come, take down the wall, put it up for auction … and that could be the route that we go. It puts us in a conundrum, I mean, we believe — I think we truly believe — that this art is for the public. But we’re also not equipped to serve the public’s needs.
The Dish 