Was Banksy's girl "Girl With A Balloon" supposed to completely self-destruct, or was it supposed to stop where it did?
Remember when that Banksy piece sold for over a million dollars and immediately sent itself through a shredder? We know that the artist installed the device in the frame, but was it intended to completely destroy the art or was it meant to stop halfway as it did? Could Banksy remotely restart the shredder to finish the job?
Answers ( 1 )
The notorious destruction of Banksy's "Girl with a Balloon" was actually an incomplete destruction of the work. It was supposed to completely shred the work. There was a shredder mechanism built inside the frame that was triggerred remotely on the sale of the work at Sotheby's. That the work got stuck was a failure of the mechanism to complete the destruction.
The destruction of the work was meant to be a statement about the state of the art industry, or just a publicity stunt. Either way, it captured the world's notice, shockingly so.
The story
https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kenny-schachter-on-banksy-at-sothebys-stunt-1372921
And the result
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/banksy-video-reveals-shredding-mechanism-failed-at-sotheby-s