Staff Blog
The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill
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| Chicken Nugget Coop |
| Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times |
Brit graffiti artist Banksy is known all over the world for his
subversive street art. His painted works are typically sprayed on
buildings, roadways, sidewalks — even boats and sandy beaches — through
ingenious stencils. The often life-size paintings force viewers to
regard a familiar trope or image in a new (and often disturbing) light.
Scourge of cops and hero of graf artists, Banksy has now turned his
saboteur’s eye on a new medium — installation sculpture. His first-ever
New York City exhibition, The Village Pet
Store and Charcoal Grill, opened yesterday. Contained within the storefront is a
menagerie of animatronic critters, real pet supplies and strange
edibles, like cans of Hormel’s Pork tidbits. In her New York Times
article “Where Fish Sticks Swim Free and Chicken Nuggets Self-Dip,”
Melena Ryzik catalogs the creatures populating Banksy’s “pet store”.
“Open for Pet Supplies/Rare Breeds/Mechanically retrieved meat”
says a sign in front of the shop. Bales of hay dot the sidewalk, along
with a kiddie dolphin ride, wrapped in a fishing net like the day’s
catch. But it is the leopard in one of the storefront windows that
stops passers-by first. “Is that — real?” a woman asked on Wednesday,
peering at a large furry object perched on a tree branch, its tail
swinging.It’s not: it is an ingeniously arranged fake fur coat.
The robot monkey is more lifelike: it sits, breathing, in a cage inside
the store, wearing headphones, holding a remote and watching a
television clip of some fellow monkeys in an amorous moment.A
rabbit wearing a pearl necklace files her nails in a window; the coop
in the next one has chicken nuggets with legs, busily dipping
themselves in sauce.Inside the store, hot dogs and sausages
squirm like snakes in sand-filled terrariums, and the floating fish
sticks are so lifelike that a visitor tapped on the tank, as if to get
their attention.
Ryzik also reported on Banksy’s inspiration behind his anthropomorphized pets-cum-snacks.
“I wanted to make art that questioned our
relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory
farming,” Banksy said in a statement distributed by a publicist, “but
it ended up as chicken nuggets singing.”
The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill runs through October 31, 89 Seventh Avenue South (near Bleecker). The exhibit is free to the public.
