A green "slaughterhouse delivery truck" filled with squeaking puppets of pigs, cows, chickens and sheep hanging out the side made its way through downtown Brooklyn this week, a gruesome statement on the meat industry by the secretive British artist Banksy.
A bystander posted a video (above) when the truck parked in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall. After parking, the driver got out and chastised the animals for being bad.
Apparently, someone wanted to track the artist down by following the truck, because the Google synopsis of the artist's website carried this note on Friday: "Please note: If you're the person who stuck a tracking device on the garden truck you're now following a car service in Queens. Oct.10. East New York"
Banksy has taken up a monthlong "artist's residency on the streets of New York City" in October, exciting admirers and irritating rival graffiti artists, who have already destroyed some of his NYC works.
Banksy has been posting pictures of his work on the website. Fans spread the word online to let others know where to view his works in a sort of artistic treasure hunt.
Jennifer Hawkins, who runs a public relations agency in Chelsea, posted pictures on Facebook after finding "a Banksy sighting right out my office backdoor," on 24th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. Spray-painted on a building wall already defaced by illegible scrawls, that graffiti showed a black silhouette of a dog lifting his leg on a fire hydrant, with the words "You complete me" in a cartoon bubble.
The Daily Telegraph, a British outlet, has created an online map to track the images. You'll find #Banksy and #BanksyWatch tagged in Tweets from all over New York City, including the Museum of Modern Art.
Banksy calls his New York City performance "Better Out Than In," a reference to a quote by impressionist Paul Cezanne, "All pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as those done outside."
Banksy — who refuses to give his real name — began his career in the British city of Bristol spray-painting local buildings. His works now fetch thousands of dollars around the world, but many of his street paintings have been defaced, destroyed or removed.
