criterionforum.org

And all that plastic surgery isn't?

Animal cruelty accusations levelled at Banksy now.

Edit: Sorry, Jeff. This is the link I wanted. I can't believe this is keeping people who normally would from watching the movie.

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Animal cruelty accusations levelled at Banksy now.

The complaints are from four and a half years ago, when that article was written. That exhibition is documented in the film.

I can't lie, I was somewhat offended by the painted elephant. Still, I kind of gave it a free pass in hopes that the point was to be offensive in pointing out the rampant exploitation of animals (and how the art community didn't even care).

This is David Holzman's Diary of the art world. There's no way this movie is for real. Just the interviews with Thierry in his backyard feel like set-ups. Like the box of fake Diana bills, it's got to be another prank from Banksy. A hugely enjoyable and sharply satiric one, though.

James Mills wrote:I can't lie, I was somewhat offended by the painted elephant. Still, I kind of gave it a free pass in hopes that the point was to be offensive in pointing out the rampant exploitation of animals (and how the art community didn't even care).

Good. people should occasionally be offended by art.
I went to that show with the elephant; it was mixed; some things were brilliant (such as the elephant); others less so.
I still see no reason to believe that the documentary is fake. And what it should be doing is making people question the degree of "truth" in any documentary, and the commodification of art, and a good many other things.

Shouldn't make fun of old people with dimentia...

A Banksy piece gets auctioned at Sotheby's, and goes through a shredder hidden in the picture frame immediately upon being purchased

The Guardian wrote:It is unclear whether the prank will have destroyed or enhanced the value of the work.

Almost certainly increased it, went from just another standard Banksy to something that got major media attention.

It's widely believed to have doubled in value, at minimum

What's "it", though? The empty canvas (incl. internal shredding mechanism) + the shreds of paper? Isn't the 'piece' itself the shredding, which can't be replicated? What, exactly is being sold + displayed at this point – mere artefacts of an artwork?

I think there's way too much irony (satire on expensive artworks is itself an expensive artwork; artist who makes fun of art world wankery gets rich from it; more millions changing hands while people die of starvation) in operation here for my feeble sensibilities.

The whole piece didn't get shredded, about half did. So the top half of it is intact in the lower half of the frame, and there are shreds dangling out the bottom of the frame.
Video on the device and the scene; you can see the result.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... th-balloon

Yes, the shredder stopping halfway through is probably the most telling part of this whole situation (and the thing that runs at least a little contrary to a narrative about this being some fearless rebel entirely destroying their art to stop it falling into the hands of private buyers), because that both destroys the artwork and still keeps all the pieces intact hanging out of the bottom of the frame rather than the picture passing entirely through. furbicide makes a good point (as does Adam) about what 'it' is now, and stopping the shredding halfway (which of course does not normally happen with shredders! Although I have a knack of regularly jamming them!) kind of captures the act of destruction halfway through in a suspended moment. If it was left with the picture turned into a pile of confetti that would perhaps be more of a commemoration of a past event where the picture was shredded more than an object of art itself any more, but by stopping halfway in a sense all that has happened is that it has now made the picture inextricably connected to its own frame. As well as an entirely unique piece as it would be difficult to take it out now without a lot of difficulty! Presumably there will need to be a new frame created to keep the original shredder frame and the dangling pieces of the artwork safe, but whoever had a million and change lying around to buy it in the first place would likely be able to create a custom frame for it anyway!

We can only hope it was an ex-Enron employee that bought it, giving them scary flashbacks whenever they look at it now!