Banksy ~ “Preserved” or “Stolen” ~ Live Discussion

In case you are not familiar with the artist or his work, here is a brief overview. Some people might say that Banksy has become one of the most successful street artists to date. His work has always primarily provoked thoughts touching on such topics as politics, culture, and ethics. Most of his creative work has been stencil and graffiti based artwork. He has never sold or supported the idea of photographs of his street art being sold. But some of his gallery accessible work in the past has auctioned of and sold for over £100,000 (roughly $140,000).

As Banksy fans have noticed, the British street artist recently visited Detroit to promote is latest film project, “Exit Through The Gift Shop,” and ventured out to explore and leave his mark. One of Bansky’s recent works, “I remember when all this was trees,” was found in in the ruins of the old Packard Plant. The Packard Plant was built in the late 1800’s and has been closed and abandoned since the late 1950’s. The plant is the largest abandoned building in North America and covers a 35 acre piece of land on East Grand Boulevard.

Well, here is the controversial issue that has created intense debate. About a week ago 555 Gallery removed the 7-by-8-foot, 1,500-pound cinder block wall with a masonry saw and forklift and relocated it to a new location at the foot of the Ambassodor bridge not far from their gallery in Southwest Detroit. They say that their focus was to “preserve” the artwork. We believe that there is no question about it, they stole it. Whether their original plan was to “preserve” it, sell it, or just use it for publicity reasons we feel that the people deserve an explanation and there is nothing that they can do to change the actions that they have taken.

The Craig Fahle Show will be hosting a discussion featuring Carl and Monte of 555 Gallery discussing there reasons for removing Banksy’s work from the Packard plant. Tom Thewes of CPOP Gallery, Matt Eaton, and Travis R. Wright of Metro Times Detroit will also discussing their position on the matter.

This discussion will be broadcasted live on 101.9 FM locally and will also be available streamed live online and eventually available in a podcast. Tune in Tuesday May 18th (tomorrow) at 11:30 a.m EST on 101.9FM and online at www.wdetfm.org. We encourage you to tune in and contribute your thoughts on the issue.

“Banksy does not endorse or profit from the sale of greeting cards, mugs, tshirts,
photo canvases etc. Banksy is not on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Gaydar.
Banksy is not represented by any form of commercial art gallery.” – Banksy

Links:

TUNE IN – www.wdetfm.org

www.banksy.co.uk

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