I just read a great article in New Yorker about the meteoric rise of "Banksy" one of the world's most well-known yet anonymous street artists.
I had seen his art many times, but forgot or didn't pay attention to the fact that it was the same artist who did "Barely Legal" in Los Angeles last year.
It was the live elephant painted the same pattern as the wallpaper of a living room in an LA warehouse, complete with furniture. "Cards were handed out explaining: 'There's an elephant in the room. There's a problem we never talk about. The fact is that life isn't getting any fairer . 20 billion people live below the poverty line.'"
So it really, REALLY pissed off the animal rights activists in LA, a mischievous and naughty and bunch of scalawags if there ever were one. LA also happened to be at that moment embroiled in a headline grabbing public scandal over whether the LA Zoo should shut its elephant enclosure and send its elephants to a large sanctuary for a better quality of life in a better neighborhood.
Anyway, I was delighted today to see a picture of a brilliant, perfectly Playa-esque Banksy stencil from 2001.
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