What Will Happen to Banksy’s ‘Spraycation’ Works?
Paintings and installations in Banksy's summer series have already been removed, erased, and vandalised. How many more will be commoditised or covered up?
Ocula video by Sam Gaskin. Source video Great British Spraycation by Banksy. Still images: BBC. Music: Bensound.
Banksy revealed new works in a video posted on Instagram over the weekend.
A Great British Spraycation sees the artist carry out nine works on England's east coast.
Already, several are gone.
The painting of a rat in a beach chair was painted over by a vandal on Saturday.
The ice cream and tongue added to a statue of inventor Frederick Savage were removed by King's Lynn Council after complaints from residents.
And Great Yarmouth Council painted over another work, which was left out of the video.
The stencil of children flying off in an inflatable boat was erased out of respect for a girl who died on an inflatable trampoline that burst in Gorleston-on-Sea in 2018.
Efforts are being made to protect other works.
Great Yarmouth Council has set up barricades to protect the couple dancing atop a bus shelter.
Part of 'We're All in the Same Boat', which shows a child bailing out a sinking vessel, was removed from Nicholas Everitt Park on Sunday out of fears it could be damaged by flooding.
And Merrivale Model Village owner Frank Newsome increased security around Banksy's 'Go Big or Go Home' cottage. The miniature cottage is being kept inside overnight to prevent theft.
It's still unclear where the remaining Spraycation works will end up, but recent history suggests more will be vandalised or sold.
Banksy's Oscar Wilde escaping Reading Gaol on a ream of typewriter paper was defaced in March by supporters of rival street artist Robbo.
Aachoo!! (2020), which appeared on a house in Bristol last year, was removed and consigned for sale by Dutch auction house Hessink.
And a Nottingham mural depicting a girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tire was purchased for six-figures and removed by English gallery owner John Brandler.
Brandler suggested that the town of Lowestoft, where the rat painting was vandalised, should create 'a permanent home' for the Spraycation works. —[O]
