Ten years ago, the mysterious British street artist Banksy took New Yorkers on a wild ride with his “Better Out Than In” series, in which, every day for a month, he revealed a new job somewhere unknown in the city's five boroughs. Almost all of these works have disappeared and one of the last two remaining will be saved from the wrecking ball.
That work is “Ghetto 4 Life,” located at 651 Elton Ave. in the South Bronx, in which a young, elegant boy is depicted painting the title of the play on a gray wall while his butler looks on, offering cans of spray paint on a tray. . Both the building's owner, David Damaghi, and the demolition engineer told the New York Daily News that the work will be preserved, although the building is scheduled for demolition to make way for a school.
Furthermore, its future is unclear. “We want to remove it, remove it and store it,” Damaghi told the newspaper. It has not yet been decided whether it will go to a museum, a gallery or a private buyer.
As much of the work of Banksy, this piece caused a bit of an uproar. When it debuted in 2013, Bronx residents were unhappy with it, saying the term “ghetto” was a crude stereotype of the area. Then-mayor Michael Bloomberg and then-city president Ruben Diaz Jr., expressed discontent with the project, but the police did not actively seek out the artist on any legal charges.
Damaghi made a point of protecting the piece behind a gate and plexiglass because, today, almost all of the works released for the project are gone. The only other one left is the one called “Zabar Banksy,” outside the Upper West Side grocery store, the Daily News points out.
At least according to local residents who recently spoke to the newspaper, it appears that opinion on the play has softened. “It’s a really good memory,” resident Marcus Velasquez told the Daily News. “It’s a story about the times. There’s a lot of history in the Bronx that, when you look at it, I think we should conserve it or something for new generations.”
Source: Artnet News