The internet responds to Banksy’s self-destructive act of art

Date
12 October 2018

Last weekend, Banksy made jaws drop and hit the headlines as his infamous Girl with Balloon unexpectedly self-destructed through its frame’s in-built shredder. The original piece had just sold for $1.4 million at the major art auction house Sotheby’s.

The entertaining prank has incited spoof spinoffs from around the world, from global brands like McDonald’s to unknown artists playing up to the scandalous stunt. Richard Agius, senior creative director of TBWA\ANG created their spoof around the instantly recognisable iconography of McDonald’s French fries captioned, “Going once, Going Fries, Gone”.

Similarly, Ikea recreated the in-built frame shredder in its signature visual language as a cheeky marketing ploy to align the homeware brand with pop culture. Whether or not you agree with Banksy’s two-fingered gesture to the multi-million dollar art world, he certainly knows how to set tongues wagging.

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Jyni Ong

Jyni joined It’s Nice That as an editorial assistant in August 2018 after graduating from The Glasgow School of Art’s Communication Design degree. In March 2019 she became a staff writer and in June 2021, she was made associate editor.

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