Banksy’s insult shows he’s clueless about New York
Errol Louis and Special to CNN
Updated
3:47 PM EDT, Tue October 29, 2013
Story highlights
Errol Louis: Street artist Banksy published rant slamming One World Trade Center
He says for a city that made cooperation, compromise part of design process, that's too much
He says building reflects many visions, rises 1776 feet to reflect year U.S. broke from British
"104 floors of compromise?" asks Banksy. Well, yes, says Louis -- he missed the point
Editor’s Note: Errol Louis is the host of “Inside City Hall,” a nightly political show on NY1, a New York City all-news channel.
(CNN) —
The secretive British artist Banksy, not content with the immense publicity already generated by his recent decision to create graffiti and other art installations around New York City each day for a month, may have finally worn out his welcome.
In a crude, obscene bid for attention, Banksy published a rant on Sunday against One World Trade Center, calling it a “shy skyscraper” that “so clearly proclaims the terrorists have won.”
“You currently have under construction a one thousand foot tall sign that reads, ‘New York – we lost our nerve,’” he wrote. “One World Trade Center declares the glory days of New York are gone.”
Errol Louis
New Yorkers, who are still recovering from the billions of dollars and thousands of lives lost at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, reacted with understandable outrage.
“TOWERING INSULT” screamed the front-page headline of the New York Daily News, proclaiming that Banksy “spits on graves of 9/11 victims.”
New York is a city long accustomed to attention-seeking huckster-artists who push – and exceed – the limits of decency and good taste. But even in a town that gave the world Warhol, Madonna, Diddy and Lady Gaga, the Banksy screed against the World Trade Center site was a bit much to bear.
Banksy, who perhaps imagines he’s bringing a fresh, avant-garde perspective to the issue, is actually joining the conversation about a decade too late. Back when the World Trade Center was still a smoking, twisted pile of debris, all sorts of New Yorkers – from planners and artists to financiers, politicians and everyday citizens – had begun a vast, anguished debate over what, if anything, should be built on the 16 acres where so many perished.
Countless planning meetings were held, involving arts groups, real estate professionals, engineers and political leaders. A string of group brainstorming sessions (called charrettes) was convened, where different ideas were sketched out and turned into models. Artists and architects were invited to dream up something new, and nine different designs emerged.
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.
PHOTO:
Courtesy Matt Stannard
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
On January 25, a new mural by street artist Banksy appeared on the French Embassy in London, criticising the French authorities' reported use of teargas in a refugee camp in Calais, France. A riff on the iconic Les Misérables poster, it shows a young girl enveloped by CS gas, crying.
PHOTO:
Carl Court/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.
PHOTO:
Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.
PHOTO:
Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.
PHOTO:
Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.
PHOTO:
Courtesy Banksy
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.
PHOTO:
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A boy walks past graffiti street art believed to be by Banksy in April 2014. The image depicts men in trench coats and dark glasses holding old-fashioned listening equipment -- apparently a commentary on government surveillance. The artwork appeared on the side of a house in Cheltenham near the Government Communications Headquarters, the UK equivalent of the National Security Agency.
PHOTO:
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A set of balloons that reads "BANKSY!" is seen off the Long Island Expressway in Queens, New York, in October 2013. Banksy artwork appeared all over New York that month.
PHOTO:
Courtesy Banksy
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy also offered up a T-shirt design on his website for fans to download and print on their own.
PHOTO:
Courtesy Banksy
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A leopard placed on the wall of New York's Yankee Stadium was revealed in October 2013.
PHOTO:
Courtesy Banksy
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the artist's site.
PHOTO:
Courtesy Banksy
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."
PHOTO:
Jason Szenes/EPA/Landov
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.
PHOTO:
Joy Scheller/Barcroft Media /Landov
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.
PHOTO:
UPI/John Angelillo /LANDOV
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.
PHOTO:
Joy Scheller/Barcroft Media/Landov
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.
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Joy Scheller/Barcroft Media /Landov
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.
PHOTO:
JUSTIN LANE /LANDOV
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.
PHOTO:
Erik Pendzich/Rex USA
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.
PHOTO:
Daniel Pierce Wright/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's "Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.
PHOTO:
ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA/Landov
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's "Concrete Confessional" is seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
PHOTO:
JASON SZENES/EPA/Landov
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."
PHOTO:
JASON SZENES/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.
PHOTO:
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention
PHOTO:
Bebeto Matthews/AP
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included an audio soundtrack.
PHOTO:
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.
PHOTO:
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.
PHOTO:
Jason LaVeris/Getty
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
People walk past a Banksy painting of a dog urinating on a wall in Beverly Hills, California, in 2011.
PHOTO:
GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.
PHOTO:
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.
PHOTO:
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.
PHOTO:
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.
PHOTO:
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.
PHOTO:
Dave Etheridge-Barnes/Getty Images
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.
PHOTO:
Paul Hartnett/PYMCA/Getty
I was one of the planners behind an extraordinary two-day public planning session, called Listening to the City, in which thousands of New Yorkers gathered at a convention center and spent hours discussing and electronically voting on the different visions, and talking about the principles that should govern the rebuilding.
Groups of total strangers sat and asked one another key questions. How much space should be devoted to commerce? How large should the memorial be? Should the site be returned to its original use as an office tower, or turned into a Gettysburg-type urban meadow (the use suggested by ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani)?
At the time, there was a serious question about whether any large companies would choose to relocate in a place that had twice been attacked by terrorists. And along the way, we tackled the very issue Banksy is now whining about: What effect will the new building have on the city skyline?
New Yorkers also debated whether to create a memorial near, beneath or alongside a new building. In the end, we opened the memorial design to the entire world, resulting in more than 5,000 entries, constituting the largest design competition in history. One wonders if Banksy bothered to send in a sketch.
The matter was largely resolved the way big public questions are supposed to get settled in a democracy: through a chain of public and private conflicts and compromises that generated a final product reflecting many visions.
Like many iconic buildings in New York, One World Trade Center is a place of commerce, continuing a tradition that created the New York skyline – from the Woolworth Building (the first skyscraper) to the Chrysler Building, Citicorp Center and the original World Trade Center itself.
The men who designed and built these and many other bold cathedrals of capitalism were trying to make money, not art. Larry Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center, received a multi-billion-dollar insurance payment for the destroyed building, under terms that included a requirement that he rebuild and lease an equivalent amount of commercial space.
And after the loss of 3,000 people in one of the worst atrocities ever committed on American soil, the issue of security was seared into the thinking of the public and private authorities involved in rebuilding the site.
New Yorkers fought, fussed and financed for years. “104 floors of compromise?” asks Banksy. Well, yes. The basic proposition of America – the Latin motto printed on our currency – is “e pluribus unum”: out of many, one. The new building, and the process that led to its creation, is quintessentially American, right to the peak of its spire, specifically designed to soar exactly 1,776 feet in the air, a nod to the year we broke from British domination in the founding act of American audacity.
Banksy, a British citizen, seems to have missed or misunderstood the symbolism, and much else, in his short time in New York. Needless to say, the democratically generated blend of culture and commerce at the World Trade Center site – which draws millions of visitors, dwarfing any audience Banksy is likely to have – will stand as a monument to our values and drive long after sarcastic visiting artists have moved on.
