Chicken Nuggets dip themselves, a rabbit in pearls is filing her nails, sausages and hot dogs squirm in terrariums, and fish sticks are floating in a tank: That’s happening until October 31, 2008 in Banksy’s The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill in Lower Manhattan (89 7th Avenue South, near Bleecker Street). It’s British artist Banksy’s first official exhibition in New York, and it’s not a mural but an installation. A mock pet supply shop, “open for pet supplies / rare breeds / mechanically retrieved meat” as a sign says in front of the shop. Banksy: “I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing.”
Banksy: The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill. Documentary, New York, October 22, 2008.
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