The Brief: A Bansky print shredded itself at an auction after being purchased for £1.04m, inspiring individuals and brands to memeify this performance art.
DEEP DIVE
Immediately after a painting by anonymous artist, Banksy, sold at a Sotheby’s auction for over 1 million GBP, it shredded itself. The “Girl With Balloon” print, one of Banksy’s most famous pieces went up in value after it went through a shredder concealed in its frame. The original buyer went through with the sale and the piece will be renamed “Love Is In The Bin.”
This combination prank and piece of conceptual art has gone viral. Since the auction, people and brands have been posting images and animations of pictures being shredded, for commercial, activist, and comedic purposes. Versions of this latest meme blend art, comedy, and advertising together.
Since everyone is surfing on this #banksy wave, thought we'd also make one about #climatechange #globalwarming pic.twitter.com/GFgZ521NLW
— saman musacchio (@musacchios) October 10, 2018
In case your art starts self-destructing… #banksy #banksyed pic.twitter.com/ASRkn5mu2I
— Lemonade (@Lemonade_Inc) October 9, 2018
No need to break the bank for a work of art 😏 #PerrierLemon #GoForTheExtraordinaire pic.twitter.com/hCf2epASez
— Perrier (@Perrier) October 9, 2018
We've heard this is all the rage now, so we'll start the bidding at €100,000… pic.twitter.com/fUOZxG64Yu
— Lidl Ireland (@lidl_ireland) October 8, 2018
To help out meme creators, a manager at Adobe created a Photoshop template with instructions so that anyone can easily create their own Bansky-inspired “shredded” photos.
I have created a @Photoshop document for you to Banksy anything! Download it here https://t.co/6VMOMpUIih change the Smart Object, et voilà – Happy shredding! 🎨 pic.twitter.com/TTBXHPl70n
— Rufus Deuchler (@rufusd) October 11, 2018