This time Banksy infiltrated the British Museum, installing a cave painting on a piece of rock depicting a primitive man pushing a shopping trolley.
Pranks at four New York Museums. March 2005
On a Sunday, 13 March, Banksy hung his work in four world-famous New York museums: the MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. The pranks were presented in the following way on http://www.banksy.co.uk:
The NPR Radio Interview about the New York pranks
On 24 March 2005, Banksy did a remarkable interview on the New York pranks on a National Public Radio show called All Thing Considered. You can listen to it here:
Source: https://www.npr.org/2005/03/24/4559961/hang-and-run-artist-strikes-nyc-museums
Here is same interview accompanied by some footage of the pranks:
Santa’s Ghetto 04. London, December 2004
The 2004 Santa’s Ghetto was located in a run-down former porn shop on 121 Charing Cross Road, next to Foyles bookshop in Central London. The pop-up art exhibition opened daily from 10am to 8pm until Christmas Eve.
It contained intriguing new works from all of the artists on Pictures of Walls. Banksy participated with a few modified oils and the first version of Napalm. The counterfeit ten-pound notes featuring Lady Di, also referred to as the Di-Faced tenners, saw the light.
The last of the small black books, Cut It Out, was launched at the exhibition.
Photos: http://www.artofthestate.co.uk, Andipa catalogue
Of particular interest were the modified oil paintings, some of which reappeared the following year at the Crude Oils exhibition. Here, three examples in clockwise order: Silent Night, Congestion Charging, and Countryside CCTV.
Photos: Bonhams and Christies
List of participants – Santa’s Ghetto 04:
The third book – “Cut it Out”. December, 2004
Cut it Out was launched during Santa’s Ghetto 2004 and was the last of the three little black books. It has some interesting street art, loads of rats, and a few lovely canvases. Among them is “Suicide bombers just need a hug” from the Turf War exhibition.
Prank at the Louvre, Paris. October 2004
In 2004, probably in October, Banksy entered the Louvre, where he hung his version of the Mona Lisa. There is no record of how long the piece lasted.
Prank at the Natural History Museum. London, April 2004
On 7 April, Banksy entered the Natural History Museum disguised as an employee. He carried a taxidermied rat in a glass-fronted box. The rat wears sunglasses and a complete graffiti kit. Apparently, the rat has sprayed “Our time will come” on the wall behind him. The installation comes with a printed explanation titled Pest Control.
Street Art 2004. Focus on UK.
London was the main focus of street art activity in 2004. But, also two pieces in Brighton and two in Somerset. There were only two pieces outside the UK in 2004, one documented in Berlin and another in Chicago. One of Banksy’s most iconic pieces goes up in Southbank: The girl with the red balloon.
Photos: “Wall and piece”.
THE WHITE HOUSE RAT. LIVERPOOL, 18 SEPTEMBER 2004
‘Whitehouse Rat’ by Banksy is probably the largest of his artworks, all categories, painted in broad daylight in Liverpool’s Chinatown. The artwork, which in its original form depicted a giant rat holding a marker pen, spanned nearly 200 square meters of a building that had previously housed the Whitehouse Pub, which quickly led to the piece being referred to by the press as ‘The Whitehouse Rat’.
The artwork was timed to coincide with the September 2004 Liverpool Biennial, which Banksy invited himself to, by painting a host of works throughout the city during the prestigious art fair.
JUSTICE UNVEILED. LONDON, 4 AUGUST 2004
A few months later, on 4 August 2004, Banksy installed another massive sculpture in London; the figure of justice overlooking the Old Bailey in London – with US dollar bills stuffed into her garter and a plaque on the plinth saying: “Trust no-one”.
Photos: Art of the State – http://www.aots.co.uk
Flyer for the Justice Unveiled event:
THE DRINKER STATUE. LONDON, FEBRUARY 2004
In February 2004, Banksy installed a statue in Princess Circus, a small square in central London. The statue is called The Drinker, a caricature of Augustin Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker. A few weeks later, the statue was stolen by self-proclaimed “art terrorist” Andy Link.
JAMAICA AND CUBA. JANUARY, 2004
In early 2004, a group from Team Banksy went to the Caribbean together with DJ Jon Carter and filmmaker Rick Elgood. One of their hosts during the visit was Jamaican dancehall star Mark Anthony Myrie, a.k.a. Buju Banton. There is very little documented from the trip to Jamaica and even less from Cuba. The following collage with pictures of some of the work in Jamaica surfaced years later, when Steven Lazarides put part of his personal collection up for sale at Juliens in LA:
Photo: From Lazarides / Julien’s
The Jamaican magazine/blog Afflicted Yard published a few photos in 2004 of Team Banksy at work in Jamaica:
Photo to the left: Rick Elgood, R, unknown and Buju Banton holding the sticker. Photo to the right: R sorting out the stencils
Santa’s Ghetto 03, London. December 2003
Santa’s Ghetto 2003 opened on 2 December in an abandoned store just off Carnaby Street in London. It contained work by Banksy, Jamie Hewlett, Mode 2, and 3D, among others. Described by Pictures on Walls as a “festive extravaganza of cheap art and related novelty goods from lowbrow artists and trained vandals”. The launch party attracted Damon Albarn of Blur, and star chef Jamie Oliver.
Photos: Wembley Pairs, Flickr
Multiple canvases
Santa’s Ghetto was a selling exhibition. Banksy sold a lot of canvases, mostly stencilled motifs in editions of 25, so-called ‘multiple canvases’, among them the iconic Girl with Balloon, also in an edition of 25. Some of the canvases that Banksy sold for £ 250 in 2003 now collect over a million pounds on the secondary market.
A few of the multiples sold at Santa’s Ghetto 2003:
Photos: Sotheby’s and Bonhams
Prank at Tate Britain. London, October 2003.
On 17 October, Banksy entered Tate Britain disguised as a pensioner and stuck one of his creations in a vacant slot on one of the gallery’s walls. After a few hours, the painting Crimewatch UK Has Ruined the Countryside For All of Us, crashed to the floor, and the stunt was discovered. In his own words:
“To actually go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It’s a lot more fun to go and put your own one up. It’s all about cutting out the middle man, or the curator in the case of the Tate. I’m kinda into the message that vandalising a painting with police tape is how a lot of people see the world these days. People don’t actually see the world with Constable’s eyes with hay and rivers any more. The amount of paranoia and fear about violent crime and paedophilia makes mine a more accurate drawing of the English landscape we actually live in.”
The caption glued next to the painting read:
“This new acquisition is a beautiful example of the neo post-idiotic style. Little is known about Banksy whose work is inspired by cannabis resin and daytime television.”
Photo sequence from the incursion at Tate Britain:
Source: http://www.banksy.co.uk
Turf War, London. July 2003
The show opened on 18 July and lasted for three days. Turf War featured a wide range of genres, techniques, and styles. It marked the beginning of a string of brilliant exhibitions with an approximate two-year interval: Turf War in 2003, Crude Oils in 2005, Barely Legal in 2006, Banksy vs. Bristol Museum in 2009, etc. The London art critics called the exhibition one of the most interesting of the year.
Photos: Jonny Baker, Mike Pickard, http://www.artofthestate.co.uk and Benny Goh. The name of the photographer for each photo is visible if you click on the photo.
ITV recorded this interview from the exhibitions—one of the few documented footage of a member of Team Banksy:
BBC Radio also interviewed “the same” Banksy at the Turf War exhibition:
The interview can be heard here:
Banksy unofficial 