Banksy Museum, NYC
Last month, we met friends Donnie & Bonnie, along with our daughter Ali at the Banksy Museum down at Canal Street and continued for dinner in Little Italy. The museum is dedicated to a renown Graffiti artist “Banksy” who began work in England and also made a name in the USA. The art, consistently biting with sarcasm and often politically pointed is exceptional. Each piece made me rethink the subject with a different mindset. The display at this for-profit museum felt complete and well organized. It included work from his early days, audience (and government) reaction to it, and continued through to the present day. Many of the pieces were reproductions, but there appeared to be some originals as well. By design, we do not know who Banksy is, providing political cover for their work, and the artist clearly resists commercialization, famously posting “commercial success is the mark of failure for a graffiti artist.” Nonetheless pieces have grown in commercial value and represent some of the most sought-after contemporary art.
Subway Doodle
However, our experience with Banksy was a side show. We were really there to see works by Sherry’s cousin Ben, who is the artist behind Subway Doodle. Subway Doodle was a passion project for him, created over the years by sketching ordinary New Yorkers interacting with his uniquely crafted blue monsters on the subway. He uses photography as his background and digital ink to depict unusual scenes that twist reality into a humorous and poignant scene. The monsters can be cuddly or scary, and always evoke some unexpected emotion on the part of the viewer.
Subway Doodle shares much with Banksy – the biting humor can cause us to rethink our preconceived notions, question technology, and often strays into the political. Like Banksy, Subway Doodle is in the form of graffiti and has also appeared on the sides of buildings. Both bring whimsy to the mundane, but this artist is not fearful of commercialization and has collaborated with Shake Shack, Hundai, the NY Yankees and Bloomingdales.
We went to the museum specifically to view a temporary interactive exhibit created by Subway Doodle featuring “Subway Bench” a life-size subway car complete with monster and others break dancing on the platform (a sign in the car reading “Subway Doodle for Mayor” lists many reasons a monster may be more qualified than current candidates), a ride-on giant rat entitled “Brooklyn Pony”, a video montage of Subway Doodle’s extensive collection of work and two giant works depicting “Intolerance” and “American Dream.” Great fun!
Little Italy
After the museum, the five of us took the short walk to Little Italy for dinner and sat outside under a nice canopy at Casa D’Angelo. The food was delicious, but midway through our meal we received a Wireless Emergency Alert about severe storms headed our way. The warnings even talked about evacuating Met Life Stadium. Sure enough the downpours soon came and we ran inside to a table the restaurant thoughtfully set up for us.
More Subway Doodle
This trip into NYC became even more of an adventure a few weeks later when Ben told us that he was auctioning the exhibits from the museum. We have always wanted to have some of his art and were moved by the “American Dream” piece, depicting one of his monsters attempting to reach for the elusive concepts of Equal Rights for All, Law and Order, Freedom of Press, Due Process, Affordable Housing and Healthcare and a Living Wage all while being shackled to a cinderblock with an American flag. It is a very large piece and also our first foray into political artwork. In this season of introspection, the Subway Doodle piece echo’s some of the feelings we are having. It will occupy a prominent location in our home and will no doubt be controversial (it has already evoked emotion among some of our family members).
A Perilous Installation
Hanging this enormous multi-media piece was an adventure of its own! The character, “Subway Doodle” stands at more than 11 feet tall with eight foot plastic pipe arms. I needed to layout the design on the floor, then identify the mounting holes, being careful to line those up with studs in our wall. Once the positioning was set, I mounted the bottom half of the monster, slowly making my way up to the head, mounting the arm supports underneath the top section. I worked meticulously and slowly, as being on top of 14 foot ladders was uncomfortable for me.
The “ideals” with wings were challenging as well even though they are made from lightweight styrofoam, because they need to mounted so high. Ironically “Affordable housing and healthcare” kept falling off the wall, and took three tries to make it stick.
The piece gets a strong reception from those visiting our house. It’s overwhelming in size and boldness. It takes a minute for people to realize the monster is the good guy. Then they realize he is reaching for ideals that are valuable to all, but held down by his own government. It is quite a statement.
Subway Doodle has been featured in a recent MTA ad series by Google called “Imagine If”. It features the character interacting in NYC in some very unusual ways, showing off Ben’s creativity and the power of AI.
Thanks for sharing Subway Doodle with us!
