Banksy Art Tour: Drinking and thinking

Editor’s Note: On Saturday, November 18, 2017 from 8:00 until 11:00 PM an exclusive gathering will be happening–the unveiling a rare 10’x10′ Banksy graffiti mural that New Orleans developer Sean Cummings discovered under nine layers of paint, saved from building demolition, and has restored over the past three years. While the piece has been meticulously restored, we want to make sure you see this Banksy in the best possible way. Enter…the New Orleans drinking and viewing of Banksy Tour!

On a partly rainy Saturday, an artist friend of mine gathered a group of friends, took us to get drive-thru daiquiris, and then guided us through the maze of Banksy street art pieces across New Orleans. It was such an authentic New Orleans way to experience some of the city’s most progressive art, that I thought I would share with you a recipe for the perfect New Orleans Street Art Tour.

First, get yourself a drive-thru daiquiri. You may have to take a trek outside of Orleans Parish (to a place such as the Daiquiri Bay Café at 1001 Veterans Memorial Boulevard) to find one. Drinking in the car is not legal, but, this being New Orleans, I think you might be able to rack your brains to think of a way to avoid that little detour. (A designated driver is a must, of course, and drinking can be confined to stops.)

I’ll move on to the core of the tour with a little Banksy background. Banksy is a British street artist, whose identity has remained elusive throughout his career. Since the early 1990s, he has been creating controversial street art that presents a grim commentary on the sociopolitical situation of the world. He uses stencil cutouts to spray paint his iconography (which includes rats, apes, policemen, and children, usually involved in some subversive or unusual activity) onto buildings.

A salute to the Morton Salt Girl.

The controversial subjects of Banksy’s graffiti-esque pieces, coupled with his performative pieces (which include, for example, putting a bound dummy in the middle of Disneyland or hanging vandalized works of art on the walls of major museums), have made him an internationally recognized leader of the street art movement. His works provoke controversy and commentary and push the limits of the already alternative street-art movement.

In 2007, Banksy focused his social commentary on New Orleans, when he painted a series of street art pieces around the city. These pieces marked the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and attempted to refocus national awareness on New Orleans.

Now, four years later, some of the pieces have been painted over, while plexiglass coverings protect others. These plexiglass coverings broach a discussion about the ephemeral nature of street art. It originally is created to be temporary, but in the wake of its increasing popularity (due to its high selling prices in auction houses and galleries, as well as its inclusion in recent museum exhibitions), people are finding better ways to preserve street art.

Banksy references the Grey Ghost, who painted over the original flower.

But that is a conversation for you to have during your own tour.

Now that you have equipped yourself with some Banksy knowledge (and hopefully some drive-thru daiquiris), you are ready to take the tour yourself. There is a map of the complete set of Banksy pieces, but we chose to visit only the pieces that had not been painted over.

Stop 1: Jackson Avenue between St. Thomas and Rousseau streets.

In this piece, Banksy comments on the Grey Ghost, a New Orleans based street artist who paints signature brushstrokes of thick, gray paint over graffiti – and occasionally commissioned street art pieces – in the city. However, here, Banksy has mimicked the Grey Ghost’s brushstrokes himself.

Stop 2: Corner of Clio Street at Carondelet Street.

Here the viewer can see the Grey Ghost’s handiwork, as he painted over the flower Banksy included in the original piece.

Stop 3: North Villere Street at the corner of St. Ann Street.

Mice are at the core of Banksy’s iconography, and this is one of Banksy’s few signature mice in the city. It is different from his usual mice because its outline was formed by crumbled bricks rather than by a stencil and spray paint.

Stop 4: North Robert Street at St. Bernard Avenue.

This piece makes an allusion to Bart Simpson’s famous scene of misconduct played in the opening of The Simpsons. In 2010, Banksy did a dark introduction to the television show, which again transfers Banksy’s art from subculture into mainstream pop culture.

A Banksy-in-question, the trumpeter evokes a sense of loss.

Stop 5: North Johnson Street at France Street.

We questioned whether this piece is an authentic Banksy or not because none of Banksy’s signature shading is included. Either way, it is worth seeing, as the trumpet boy, who appears to be blowing off of the run-down house on which he is painted, evokes the sense of loss of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Stop 6: Piety Street between St. Claude Avenue St. and Rampart Street.

This is a bonus stop for those of you who get to this tour in the near future. It is a piece done by the street artist Swoon, in concurrence with her current installation at NOMA and as a promotion for the permanent artist space/musical house New Orleans Airlift is building in the Bywater (Dithyramblina is set to open on July 28). Swoon uses paper drawings and wheat pastes to create her works, but because of this, her works are even more temporary than other street artists.

A Banksy tribute to ‘The Simpsons’

Stop 7: Kerlerec Street at North Rampart Street.

This piece, which alludes to the Morton Salt girl, is complemented by a neighboring Candy Chang “I Wish This Was” piece. For this project, Chang placed “I Wish This Was” stickers around the city, allowing people to fill in the blank with something they think is needed in a particular area of the city.

Stop 8: Elysian Fields Avenue at Decatur Street.

This piece has unfortunately been painted over, but is still worth seeing. It garnered much controversy as it was originally composed of a fabricated window, which allowed viewers to peer into a warehouse being looted by guards.

The New Orleans Street Art tour is definitely one worth doing (especially because no one can predict how long the pieces will last). It incorporates New Orleans into an art movement that is becoming more legitimized and recalls steps that need to be taken to further rebuild and preserve the city. Though on one hand Banksy’s art is subversive, it shines a light on the corrupt undercurrent of our society and encourages the passive bystander to become an active part of the solution.

Brianna Smyk has an M.A in Art History from San Diego State University. She lives and works in New Orleans and writes about arts and culture for NOLAVie. Read more of Brianna’s articles at www.beingbreezie.tumblr.com.