All the city
Gottcha! This piece was as elusive as Banksy himself. On October 16th the street artist unfolded to New York a fiberglass replica of Ronald McDonald, the omnipresent mascot of the infamous fast food chain, and has been moving it from one McDonald’s to another. Together with it, there’s a living boy shining his big clown shoes. As the audio guide noted, Ronald is “arguably the most sculpted figure in history after Christ”, so Banksy hits here one of the most signature symbols of the Capitalism and the Consumer Culture of the US and the World. And this poor looking boy, voicelessly shining his shoes, is “a critique of the heavy labour required to sustain the polished image of a mega-corporation”, according to the audio guide. The image gets more powerful pictured in front of an actual McDonald’s restaurant. Ronald stares at the boy waving impassively with a face that’s actually the one of the Greek God Hermes, messengers of the Olympian Gods and patron of travelers, shepherds… and thieves, carved by Praxiteles in 340 BC. By the way, don’t try to elicit anything out of the shining boy, he’s speechless. I got it, with Sirens of the Lambs (!) thanks to the guys of Street Art News on 3rd st., with 6th ave, but it’s hard to tell which McDonald’s is going to hit next. Good luck out there!
Stenciled in New York 