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Photos, Video: Banksy's New Piece Is A Traveling Ronald McDonald Statue
By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 16, 2013
Modified Oct 16, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 16, 2013
Modified Oct 16, 2013
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It's day 16 of Banksy's NYC takeover, and he's just put up his latest piece: "a fibreglass replica of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined by a real live boy. The sculpture will visit the sidewalk outside a different McDonalds every lunchtime for the next week. Today: South Bronx."
Update: The piece is at Boston Road and Seabury.
Update 2: Nic Garcia is on the scene and says that when asked questions, the shoe shine boy says, "No English." Another onlooker speaks five languages and tried them out on the boy, but got the same response.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who saw the shoe shine boy and the statue just as they were leaving the location, said of Banksy's first Bronx visit, "We're excited to be a part of this. We're glad that even Banksy can see that our borough is the place to be."
Here's a rough transcription of the audio for this piece when you call the 1-800 number:
"What you see before you is a sculpture entitled ‘Shoeshine’ dating from the summer of 2013, depicting the powerful figure of Ronald McDonald waving impassively as his ridiculously oversized clown shoes are buffed to a fine shine. Ronald was adopted as the official mascot of the McDonald’s fast food corporation chain in 1966. Fiberglass versions of his likeness have been installed outside restaurants ever since. Thus, making Ronald arguably the most sculpted figure in history after Christ. (‘Ooohh!’) For this piece, the artist has reproduced Ronald McDonald in perfect detail, singlehandedly. (‘Aaaah!’) If, by perfect detail, you mean ‘roughly’, and by singlehandedly, you mean with two people helping. (‘Awww!’) The result is a critique of the heavy labour required to sustain the polished image of a mega-corporation. Is Ronald’s statuesque pose indicative of how corporations have become the historical figures of our era? Does this hero have feet of clay and a massively large footprint to boot? But, take a closer look and you may notice something familiar about this clown. His face is that of the Greek god Hermes, carved by Praxiteles in 340 BC.
Is this a wry, oblique reference to Greek mythology? Or did the artist have such difficulty trying to sculpt the face he simply pronged on the nearest replica bust he could find? We would never know.
(Whispered) It’s the second one!"
Update 3: As of 2 p.m. Ronald is at the East Tremont and Arthur Avenue McDonald's.
Tagged
banksy
better out than in
ronald mcdonald
South Bronx
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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