2010 | NEW YORK | USA
i love NY “No one is a bigger supporter of the arts than I am... defacing somebody’s property... is not my definition of art. Or it may be art, but it should not be permitted.” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
A development of a similar piece created earlier the same year in San Francisco, this has all the qualities of juxtaposition, anachronism, mocking of common cliché and subliminal irony which define a classic Banksy. At a top level the image and message are immediate: one of the most ubiquitous symbolic messages – I [heart] New York – is juxtaposed with a doctor listening for a heartbeat with his stethoscope, suggesting that there are reasons to be concerned about New York’s health. Look a little more deeply and several other readings are possible. The doctor is from another era: the monocle is suggestive of the 1930s, the suit and brogues similarly so. This is a classic English image – the gladstone bag was standard for UK general practitioners of the period. Is this a comment on the past judging the present? New York isn’t what it used to be? A wry comment on a British judgement on the state of the world’s previously culturally dominant city, asking perhaps, ‘is there any heart left?’ It’s location – on Cedar Street, just above Wall Street – might give another clue. Wall Street, after the appalling destruction of the 2008 financial crash, is still as sick as ever, carrying on just as before. A level of drama is introduced by the situation and the open gladstone bag. In movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s, the doctor would be urgently called to the stricken patient and would immediately open his bag and make his assessment. The image is suggestive of this rush. The stairs are the perfect podium to give the image prominence on the street. Altogether, this is one of Banksy’s most satisfying images. The stencil, apparently, took just 45 seconds.
Where is it ? lower manhattan, NYC, USA.
150 | Where's b** ksy?
Latitude: 40.7089ºN Longitude: 74.0112ºW