Banksy’s New Pet Project
careof Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill site
A couple nights ago, my friend led me to the nondescript Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill in the West Village. She described what I was about to see: chicken nuggets eating bbq sauce, a bunny getting dolled up in makeup and nail polish, a momma cctv camera feeding baby cctvs, a leopard-like form whose tail swings, fish sticks swimming in a fishbowl, a featherless Tweety Bird swinging in a cage–all moving with Disney World-quality animatronics. There’s even a coin-operated dolphin wrapped in a fishnet that you can ride for 50 cents (I know it works because I rode it).
The day before, my friend got a chance to browse inside and observed there were no price tags or cash registers. She said when she asked the employees for more details, all she got was that they were told they this was a pet store. Her followup remarks like, “this seems like an art installation” and “this doesn’t seem like a pet store” were greeted with blank stares. After I witnessed this for myself I immediately hopped a cab home and Googled all variations of the store name, address, animatronic chicken nugget, and so on; cross-checked sites like Wooster Collective and even Peta. The searches returned nothing.
Well today, nytimes and Wooster cleared it all up–the pet store is the work of the venerable Banksy.
Here’s some footage from Wooster:
I went back today and saw crowds of people finally clued into what was going on. One of the employees, who was handing out Village Pet Store business cards, told me she had no idea what this was until this morning when it was in the Times. Banksy, you’re a cunning genius.
The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill is open from 10am-midnight daily until October 31, 2008.
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banksy is a fucking genius. i was visiting london two years ago and saw him (well his figure) throwing up one of his rat stencils. love his work and his aesthetic!
Comment by spencetron — October 9, 2008 @ 7:45 pm