<p>On Friday, collectors at Sotheby&#8217;s frenzied over Banksy&#8217;s 2006 &#8220;Girl with Balloon&#8221; painting, ultimately pushing the winning bid to a jaw-dropping $1.4 million.</p>
<p>After the gavel was struck, an alarm went off, reports <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/arts/design/uk-banksy-painting-sothebys.html&#8203;">The New York Times</a>. Within seconds, the painting was pulled through the bottom of the frame by an automatic shredder.</p>
<p>Two posts about the incident were uploaded to Banksy&#8217;s official Instagram account. One is a still image of the painting getting shredded, featuring the caption: &#8220;Going, going, gone.&#8221;</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bokt2sEhlsu/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Going, going, gone&#8230;</a></p>
<p>A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/banksy/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Banksy</a> (@banksy) on Oct 5, 2018 at 6:45pm PDT</p>
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<p>The other is a video showing bystanders reacting in shock as the art is destroyed. The shredding appears to stop on its own at the halfway mark as two men quickly take the painting off the wall.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BomXijJhArX/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">. &#8220;The urge to destroy is also a creative urge&#8221; &#8211; Picasso</a></p>
<p>A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/banksy/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Banksy</a> (@banksy) on Oct 6, 2018 at 10:09am PDT</p>
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<p>Beneath the video is a quote from Picasso: &#8220;The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/sothebys-gets-banksyed-at-contemporary-art-auction-in-london?locale=en&#8203;">Sotheby&#8217;s</a> quotes Alex Branczik, Senior Director and Head of Contemporary Art, Europe London, who stated: &#8220;It appears we just got Banksy-ed.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Sotheby&#8217;s, the bidder&#8217;s identity is private, and the auction house is &#8220;currently in discussions about next steps.&#8221;</p>


WATCH: Banksy Painting Shreds Itself At Sotheby’s After Final Bid

London

Street Art

<p>The artist collective &#8220;Indecline,&#8221; which has been &#8220;resisting&#8221; President Donald Trump with naked statues since late 2017, is celebrating their one year anniversary with a billboard placed high above Los Angeles showing a naked Donald Trump in clown makeup in front of a famous quote from serial killer John Wayne Gacy.</p>
<p>The billboard <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/art-collective-installs-naked-clown-trump-on-los-angeles-billboard">appeared Friday morning</a>, subjecting L.A. commuters to the day-ruining visual of a naked Trump decked out in clown makeup hundreds of feet overhead. The larger-than-live-size clown Trump stood in front of a billboard with the words, &#8220;You know, a clown can get away with murder,&#8221; scrawled across it.</p>
<p>The installation is called, creatively, &#8220;The Emperor Has No Balls.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gacy, who is believed to have raped and murdered dozens of young men in the late 1970s and early 1980s, worked briefly as a children&#8217;s party clown and used the quip to describe how his calm and often outgoing demeanor helped disguise his true self.</p>
<p>&#8220;Human rights, environmental protections, freedom of the press &#8211; which we&#8217;ve seen this week &#8212; civil decency,&#8221; a representative for Indecline <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/naked-trump-clown-statue-john-wayne-gacy-indecline-712569/">told Rolling Stone magazine</a>. &#8220;These things are fundamentally necessary for a functioning democracy. So we would totally liken him to a serial killer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Las Vegas based Indecline hasn&#8217;t made much progress in ending Donald Trump&#8217;s presidency, but they have made a little cash. Last year, <a href="http://old.theartnewspaper.com/news/in-the-frame/trump-s-rump-roasted-/">they positioned life-sized &#8220;Naked Trump</a>&#8221; statues in parks across the country, hoping to call attention to Trump&#8217;s diminutive . . . er . . . <em>digits</em>. Some of those statues have sold to private collectors for up to $28,000 at auction.</p>
<p>That money reportedly helped finance another Trump-related &#8220;guerilla art project&#8221; &#8212; turning a suite at the Trump International Hotel and Tower into a makeshift &#8220;jail cell&#8221; where an imprisoned Trump impersonator showed off to invited journalists.</p>
<p>Donald Trump has not expressed an opinion on the installation, which was removed late Friday.</p>


New L.A. Art Installation Portrays Donald Trump As A ‘Killer Clown’

Donald Trump

<p>This year&#8217;s San Diego Comic-Con kicked off on Thursday with a slate of movie trailer releases, new series announcements, artwork presentations, cosplay fans, and a big dose of social justice propaganda. </p>
<p>On the first day of the convention, fans were treated to the seminar &#8220;Entertainment is LGBTQ,&#8221; where insiders offered their thoughts on inclusivity in the industry. Comicbook.com <a href="http://comicbook.com/comics/2018/07/18/sdcc-2018-comics-marvel-dc-image-idw-dark-horse/#5">reported</a>:</p>
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<p>BOOM! Studios and GLAAD present an in-depth roundtable discussion about LGBTQ representation in pop culture and the path forward to a brighter, more inclusive future, with special guests from all corners of the entertainment world including Emily Andras (Executive Producer and Showrunner of Wynonna Earp), Lilah Sturges (Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass), Marguerite Bennett (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), Noah Hayes (Wet Hot American Summer) and more. Moderated by Megan Townsend (Director of Entertainment Research &amp; Analysis, GLAAD).</p>
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<p>Aside from the GLAAD sponsored panel, AMC&#8217;s anti-Christian and low-rated show &#8220;Preacher&#8221; gets spotlighted with &#8220;the Women of Marvel.&#8221; It is worth noting that the &#8220;Men of Marvel&#8221; receive no such panel. </p>
<p>Just what fans want to see, according to the Left. Forget the much-anticipated trailer to the DC Universe series &#8220;Titans&#8221; or Marvel Comics presenting their newest titles, it&#8217;s all about intersectionality.</p>
<p>The comic book industry has not seemed to learn their lessons from the last <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/15033/marvel-vp-diversity-our-characters-killing-our-ben-shapiro">two years</a>. When they turned Captain America into a Nazi, Thor into a woman, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/20248/batman-about-be-infected-social-justice-virus-jacob-airey">Batman</a> into an SJW-front character, the sales of their titles plummeted. </p>
<p>Though they initially realized their mistakes after blaming their fans, they now seem determined to repeat the same mistakes over again, as the planned social justice-themed &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/33204/cw-launch-batwoman-tv-series-one-big-social-james-barrett">Batwoman</a>&#8221; television series demonstrates. </p>
<p>Nerds have always enjoyed two things: good artwork and good storytelling. The comic book industry is making a huge mistake by caving to left-wing pressure and trying to force leftist issues onto their readers.</p>
<p>Conservatives, likewise, are missing a golden opportunity here. Nerd Culture has made its way into the mainstream with the success of films like &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29953/avengers-infinity-war-review-ten-years-making-jacob-airey">Avengers: Infinity War</a>.&#8221; From my extensive experience in the nerd culture, I have found most comic book readers tend to be center-right or at least libertarian in their political leanings, with the unifying factor being the belief in free expression and the open exchange of ideas. </p>
<p>Those on the Right who dismiss this growing subculture as &#8220;unrefined&#8221; for preferring Geoff Johns to Alex Marlowe are causing alienation when there could be an alliance. It would be prudent for conservatives to extend a hand. This could lead to a connection into the world of art, literature, and even filmmaking. This would be to the benefit of both conservatives and nerds. </p>
<p>Michael Knowles and Elisha Krauss discuss the Comic-Con LGBT panel on this week&#8217;s Friday Live. You can watch the video below:</p>
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The Comic Book Industry Doubles Down On Social Justice At This Year’s Comic-Con

Conservatism

Marvel

Social Justice

<p>A Kansas family who lost sight of their son for mere moments may now owe a community center more than $130,000, <a href="http://abc7chicago.com/family-on-the-hook-for-$132000-after-son-topples-statue/3606699/">according to WGN News</a>.</p>
<p>Sarah Goodman and her family were at a wedding at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center last month when she briefly lost sight of her five year old son. Suddenly, she says, she heard yelling &#8212; a Community Center employee screaming &#8220;Where is your mother?&#8221;</p>
<p>When she ran to investigate, she found her five year old son had &#8220;hugged&#8221; a mosaic bust of a Greek goddess and had toppled the statue off its base, leaving it broken on the floor.<a href="http://abc7chicago.com/family-on-the-hook-for-$132000-after-son-topples-statue/3606699/"> Surveillance footage captured the incident</a>, showing the small boy throwing his arms around the statue before it tumbles to the ground almost on top of him.</p>
<p>But what should have been an unfortunate incident turned into a major story when Goodman found out that the bust wasn&#8217;t just a piece of public art, but a priceless sculpture entitled, &#8220;Aphrodite di Kansas City&#8221; by artist Bill Lyons &#8212; and it cost a whopping $132,000.</p>
<p>&#8220;This glass mosaic torso is laying on the ground and someone is following me around demanding my personal information,&#8221; Goodman told local media. &#8220;&#8216;Maybe this is like 800 or something.&#8217; No, it&#8217;s $132,000!&#8221;</p>
<p>The city&#8217;s insurance company sent the Goodmans a bill for the full price of the statue, claiming that they were negligent in not closely supervising their young children. The statue, it turns out, was &#8220;on loan to the city,&#8221; and they aren&#8217;t happy that someone at a party knocked it over.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a societal responsibility that you may not interact with it if it&#8217;s not designed for interaction,&#8221; a city official told WGN.</p>
<p>The Goodmans say they had no idea the art was expensive, and that something that precious should have been placed behind glass or marked with a &#8220;do not touch&#8221; sign. Standing alone and unsecured in a hallway, the statue was a safety hazard.</p>
<p>&#8220;My children are well-supervised, but all people get distracted,&#8221; Goodman told reporters.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s in the main walkway,&#8221; she added about the statue. &#8220;Not a separate room, not plexiglas, not protected, not held down.&#8221;</p>
<p>For now, the family says they aren&#8217;t paying the bill, and they&#8217;re waiting to see whether the city takes legal action.</p>


Kansas Family Forced To Pay $132,000 After Kid Breaks ‘Public Art’ Installation

Kansas

<p>The controversial feminist &#8220;Fearless Girl&#8221; statue, which has been staring down Wall Street&#8217;s &#8220;Charging Bull&#8221; &#8212; a symbol of the robust American economic machine &#8212; is about to get a new home in front of the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>The statue, a publicity stunt commissioned by State Street Global Advisors, has &#8220;done its job,&#8221; State Street&#8217;s (male) CEO Cyrus Taraporevala told <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/fearless-girl-leaving-charging-bull-moving-home/story?id=54582068">ABC News</a>. He believes that 150 new female C-suite employees, added since &#8220;Fearless Girl&#8221; first went up, owe their jobs to the tiny bronze avatar.</p>
<p>Since Fearless Girl&#8217;s placement, more than 150 companies have added a female director to their boards,&#8221; he said &#8220;Our hope is that by moving her closer to the NYSE she will encourage more companies to take action and, more broadly, that she will continue to inspire people from all walks of life on the issue of gender diversity.&#8221;</p>
<p>The new female employees are probably the result of correlation and not causation, but no matter. Taraporevala is hardly the first person to claim &#8220;Fearless Girl&#8221; was evidence of a powerful new era in women&#8217;s equality. Everyone from New York&#8217;s mayor to Sen. Elizabeth Warren got shots of themselves posing alongside the statue, even though in staring down Wall Street&#8217;s &#8220;Charging Bull,&#8221; the little girl was really standing in the way of <em>actual </em>progress.</p>
<p>Not everyone loved it. The &#8220;Charging Bull&#8221; artist said it interfered with the meaning of his original work. Even some feminists objected to what they called an <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/04/16/fearless-girl-must-go-its-a-tourist-attraction-and-an-appealing-fantasy-but-a-terrible-symbol-for-feminism/">&#8220;infantilizing&#8221; symbol</a> that reinforces, not shatters, sexism.</p>
<p>But typical leftists were smitten; &#8220;Fearless Girl&#8221; had a lease on its tiny bit of real estate for one year. Mayor Bill de Blasio extended that agreement in order to give the statue and its artist time to find it a new home. Now, the city claims that it will probably send &#8220;Charging Bull&#8221; over to the NYSE as well, even though it&#8217;s been a fixture in its current spot for close to four decades.</p>
<p>They have to be together. Or something.</p>


Wall Street’s ‘Fearless Girl’ Statue Is Moving To The New York Stock Exchange

Bill de Blasio

Fearless Girl

Wall Street

<p>Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli co-founder and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Isao Takahata passed away in a Tokyo hospital after a long struggle with lung cancer on Thursday.</p>
<p>The Japanese Times <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/06/national/oscar-nominated-japan-animation-giant-isao-takahata-dies-82-reports/#.Wsbi09PwbBI">reports</a> that Takahata was 82 at the time and died surrounded by friends and loved ones. Takahata had a prolific career directing, producing, and writing a total of twenty-one popular anime films as well as several television shows and specials. </p>
<p>Born in Mie Prefecture on October 29, 1935, Takahata got his start at Toei Animation in 1959 producing several films, including making his directorial debut with &#8220;The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun&#8221; in 1968. </p>
<p>He is perhaps best known for co-founding Studio Ghibli with fellow animator Hayao Miyazaki, whom he described as a &#8220;sometimes friend, sometimes rival.&#8221; They collaborated on such films as the first official Ghibli production &#8220;Grave Of The Fireflies&#8221; and later &#8220;Kiki&#8217;s Delivery Service.&#8221;</p>
<p>Studio Ghibli has a reputation for making whimsical children films such as &#8220;My Neighbor Totoro,&#8221; young adult steampunk tales like &#8220;Castle In The Sky,&#8221; and dark fantasies like &#8220;Princess Mononoke.&#8221; In 1996, Disney formed a partnership with the company to make English version of the features. </p>
<p>The final film that Takahata directed was &#8220;The Tale of the Princess Kaguya&#8221; in 2013. Despite being an animated film, it was the most expensive movie ever made in Japan, using an old-style sketch version of animation for the artwork. Takahata&#8217;s efforts paid off, as the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015 after achieving international fame.</p>
<p>Takahata told <a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/studio-ghibli/244690/isao-takahata-interview-the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya">Den of Geek</a> at the time, &#8220;I chose this (artistic) style because I didn&#8217;t want people to forget this. The lines drawn here are not just the contours of the real things, but rather ways to instantaneously capture the expression of those things.&#8221;</p>
<p>He added, &#8220;This technique of giving expression to the line and leaving blank spaces so that the entire surface of the painting is not filled, which engages the viewer&#8217;s imagination, is one that holds an important place not only in traditional paintings of China and Japan, but also in sketches in Western drawings. What I have done is to attempt to bring this technique to animation.&#8221;</p>


Legendary Japanese Animation Director Isao Takahata Dies At 82

Children

China

Disney

Hollywood

Japan

Media

Oscars

United States

<p>A group of full time &#8220;protest artists&#8221; called &#8220;INDECLINE&#8221; set up an art installation inside a Trump International Hotel room in New York City over the weekend, trapping a faux President Trump in a cage full of McDonalds wrappers, and releasing live rodents to symbolize the President &#8220;eating his own.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5565155/Activists-release-live-rodents-Trump-hotel-room-unauthorized-art-installation.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus#ixzz5BMqMCa4U">According to the Daily Mail</a>, which obtained pictures of the installation, &#8220;The People&#8217;s Prison&#8221; featured a Trump impersonator in a MAGA hat, sitting in a cage, surrounded by graying walls covered in paintings of &#8220;American revolutionaries&#8221; like Edward Snowden, Noam Chomsky, and Assata Shakur.</p>
<p>They added the live rats because &#8220;President Trump is the ultimate rat and thus, deserves to be imprisoned with his own breed,&#8221; the guerilla artists told the Mail.</p>
<p>The artists also, of course, released a video of their efforts: an eye-rolling compilation of generic progressive images, narrated by someone who frequently quotes Hunter S. Thompson, because the artists of INDECLINE apparently all have four-year liberal arts degrees and very little exposure to a rich world of subversive literature unavailable on Amazon.</p>
<p>&#8220;America could&#8217;ve been a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race,&#8221; the narrator says over a video of the INDECLINE activists luring city rats with McDonalds food, without apparent regard for communicable disease. &#8220;Instead we just moved in here and destroyed the place from coast to coast like killer snails. Everybody wants power over a country that&#8217;s had its day.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hotel staff were, apparently, aware of their actions, and while not giving them their blessing, assisted the artists in moving materials and handling cleanup &#8212; so it wasn&#8217;t exactly the work of &#8220;killer snails.&#8221; There&#8217;s so far no word on whether the apparently all-white crew of INDECLINE (they, of course, posed for a group photo), were generous in tipping the hotel&#8217;s hard-working housekeeping team, forced to clean up after a box of rats (and worse, guerilla artists).</p>
<p>The INDECLINE team allowed a group of journalists to view the work for three hours before it was dismantled. They&#8217;ll re-create the &#8220;groundbreaking&#8221; work at a gallery in Los Angeles next month.</p>


‘Artists’ Destroy Trump Hotel Room, Release Live Rats In Anti-Trump ‘Protest’ Installation

<p>Feminist art has yet to progress beyond weird acts with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/17692/watch-feminists-paint-their-period-blood-amanda-prestigiacomo">period blood</a> and uterus drawings, and this <a href="https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/art-production-fund-champ-zoe-buckman-955151">newest display</a> of an electronic uterus overlooking Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood does little to move the genre any further forward.</p>
<p>Behold:</p>
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<p>The latest THE ART HUM! <a href="https://t.co/mg1DUWrUHQ">https://t.co/mg1DUWrUHQ</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/art?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#art</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iiot?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#iiot</a></p>
<p>&#8212; Cherrian Angela Chin (@c8chin) <a href="https://twitter.com/c8chin/status/968858922516967424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>As noted by <a href="https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/art-production-fund-champ-zoe-buckman-955151">Artnet</a>, the glowing neon uterus with a pair of boxing gloves, titled &#8220;Champ,&#8221; serves as &#8220;an in-your-face reminder of the women&#8217;s movement and its newfound ability to topple men in positions of power.&#8221;</p>
<p>Created by artist Zoe Buckman and organized by <a href="http://www.artproductionfund.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Art</a><a href="http://www.artproductionfund.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Production Fund</a>, the &#8220;art&#8221; installment took two years to create and is being unveiled at the most opportune of times, given the #MeToo movement, where scores of prominent male feminists like Harvey Weinstein have been outed as sexual predators.</p>
<p>&#8220;The pay gap is very obvious and apparent in Hollywood, and it&#8217;s no secret that there&#8217;s been systemic sexual harassment and assault in the industry, so we knew all that going in,&#8221; Buckman told Artnet News. &#8220;I just didn&#8217;t know that the rest of the country would be thinking those things as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Everything I&#8217;ve made has always been speaking to the female experience, whether that&#8217;s personal or political,&#8221; said Buckman. &#8220;It&#8217;s really encouraging and rewarding to see these ideas so widely discussed.&#8221;</p>
<div>Buckman has a history of turning female reproductive images into neon, a career arc which started after the birth of her daughter in 2011.</div>
<p>&#8220;Her &#8216;Present Life&#8217; series was inspired by her own <a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/why-is-zoe-buckman-using-her-placenta-to-create-art-253453" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">placenta</a>, which she had plastinated and turned into a sculpture, and included a series of placenta-themed works, with some in neon,&#8221; according to Artnet.</p>
<p>Buckman said of her neon placenta work: &#8220;In photo school, they teach you that light is your paintbrush. In that body of work, I wanted to create a neon placenta. I don&#8217;t think I realized until just now that that was a building block to <em>Champ</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite &#8220;Champ&#8217;s&#8221; obvious progressive message, Buckman says she faced stiff adversity getting fundraising from companies to endorse it.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s incredibly difficult to get political, feminist-driven art supported,&#8221; said Buckman. &#8220;Lots of people want to create the illusion that they are supporting feminist messaging, but when it comes to spending money, most brands and companies were afraid of the criticism they could face by putting their names to this piece.&#8221;</p>


Giant Uterus Sign Erected In Downtown Hollywood

Abortion

Feminism

<p>That lasted long.</p>
<p>On Christmas Eve, of all nights, a feminist artist named Carolina Falkholt painted a giant penis on the side of a building  in New York&#8217;s Lower East Side for no other reason than to troll people. The title of her &#8220;art&#8221; installment: &#8220;No Time 4 Ball$$&#8221; (warning: language):</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BdGdPRnFmOJ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NO TIME 4 BALL$$ . . . I have never heard so much laughter and seen so many happy faces behind my back when painting as for today doing this wall on Broome Street . . . #dick #pussypower #gender #genitalia #sexuality #thenewallen #cock #love #art #spraypaint #gay #flesh #blood #queer #transgender #pussy #ass #anal #genderfluid #pride #bipolar #anxiety #sex #fuck #hardwork #spraypaint #trigger #iscplife #merrychristmas @montanacans @montanacans_usa @newallen_ny #happyholidays #thenewallen @iscp_nyc</a></p>
<p>A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/carolinafalkholt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> CAROLINA FALKHOLT</a> (@carolinafalkholt) on Dec 24, 2017 at 1:57pm PST</p>
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<p>Speaking with The Guardian, Falkholt said she painted the penis, &#8220;not feeling ashamed of your body and who you are as a sexual being.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I usually paint giant vaginas, p*ssies and c**ts,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and since I had just finished one on the side of a five-story building, I felt like a d**k was needed. The wall space on Broome was a perfect fit for it.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/penis-mural-new-york-painted-over-artist-carolina-falkholt-street-art-graffiti-police-latest-a8131101.html">The Independent</a>, Falkholt had no authorization from the building&#8217;s owner to paint the giant manstrosity. As of Wednesday afternoon, a team of contractors had already begun painting over it.</p>
<p>Speaking with the New York Post, a police source reportedly said that Falkholt could be charged with &#8220;criminal mischief felony,&#8221; though no arrest has been made as of yet.</p>
<p>Neighborhood residents had mixed reactions to the installment. Some were upset about the children present. Others thought it fit the neighborhood perfectly.</p>
<p>&#8220;Crazy people will want it gone quickly, but this is the LES [Lower East Side],&#8221; said one resident. &#8220;This mural is what is supposed to happen here.&#8221;</p>


UPDATE: Giant Penis In New York Didn’t Last Long

New York

<p>On Christmas Eve, of all nights, a huge street art installment of a giant phallus was erected on New York City&#8217;s Lower East Side.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/12/27/enormous-penis-pops-up-in-nyc/">New York Post</a>, &#8220;a towering painting depicting a shockingly life-like penis went up on the side of 303 Broome St. on Christmas Eve.&#8221;</p>
<p>Swedish artist Carolina Falkholt took responsibility for the monstrosity on Instagram, saying the giant penis had no significance other than to troll people.</p>
<p>&#8220;NO TIME 4 BALL$$ . . . I have never heard so much laughter and seen so many happy faces behind my back when painting as for today doing this wall on Broome Street,&#8221; the artist said on Instagram.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BdGdPRnFmOJ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NO TIME 4 BALL$$ . . . I have never heard so much laughter and seen so many happy faces behind my back when painting as for today doing this wall on Broome Street . . . #dick #pussypower #gender #genitalia #sexuality #thenewallen #cock #love #art #spraypaint #gay #flesh #blood #queer #transgender #pussy #ass #anal #genderfluid #pride #bipolar #anxiety #sex #fuck #hardwork #spraypaint #trigger #iscplife #merrychristmas @montanacans @montanacans_usa @newallen_ny #happyholidays #thenewallen @iscp_nyc</a></p>
<p>A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/carolinafalkholt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> CAROLINA FALKHOLT</a> (@carolinafalkholt) on Dec 24, 2017 at 1:57pm PST</p>
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<p>Not everyone appreciated the prank. Neighborhood resident Qun Chen, 47, warned that children are present in the building.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s ugly,&#8221; said Chen &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of kids that live in this building and in the neighborhood &#8212; it&#8217;s not good for the kids, they&#8217;re little.&#8221;</p>
<p>Others laughed alongside Falkholt. One fitness trainer will even use it to bolster business.</p>
<p>&#8220;Maybe they&#8217;re trying to bring consciousness, awareness,&#8221; said ConBody co-owner Sultan Malik, 36. &#8220;If you work out hard, your d&#8212; stays hard like that every day.&#8221;</p>
<p>Falkholt has created these sort of vulgar art stunts before. In 2015, she sprayed a towering vulva onto a Swedish building.</p>
<p>While certainly a contender, Falkholt&#8217;s display does not represent the biggest modern art fail of 2017. That award goes to<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/22812/trans-artist-collects-200-gallons-urine-protest-paul-bois"> trans artist Cassils</a> who collected 200 gallons of urine and put it on display in a museum to protest Donald Trump. After Cassil collected her specimens, she then poured all 200 gallons of it into a storage tank that would preserve it for spectators to come and feast their eyes on urine.</p>


This Giant Penis Just Popped Up In New York

<p>TJ Khayatan, a 17-year-old prankster from the Bay Area, decided to created his own exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art after he and his friends toured the gallery and were unimpressed by the work displayed.</p>
<p>Khayatan took his glasses off and placed them on the floor next to a wall as if it were an art piece to be appreciated. To his and his friends&#8217; surprise people actually fell for it.</p>
<p>TJ&#8217;s tweet about the event below&#8230;</p>
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<p>LMAO WE PUT GLASSES ON THE FLOOR AT AN ART GALLERY AND&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/7TYoHPtjP8">pic.twitter.com/7TYoHPtjP8</a></p>
<p>&#8212; teejay (@TJCruda) <a href="https://twitter.com/TJCruda/status/734951316095533057">May 24, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Khayatan told <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/javiermoreno/people-are-loving-this-teens-art-gallery-prank?bftw&amp;utm_term=.jyO3OmGnp#.sryr6KLVO" target="_blank">Buzfeed</a> that when they got to the museum they were puzzled by some of the exhibits. &#8220;We stumbled upon a stuffed animal on a gray blanket and questioned if this was really impressive to some of the nearby people,&#8221; he told website.</p>
<p>It was at that moment the teens decided to put the glasses on the floor and quickly walked away to see people&#8217;s reaction. Immediately onlookers started gathering around the &#8220;art exhibit&#8221; so TJ and his friends took pictures of them contemplating its meaning&#8230;</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="8291" data-media-element="1" height="676" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/art-glasses-1.jpg" width="962" /></div>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="8292" data-media-element="1" height="363" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/art-glasses.jpg" width="272" /></div>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="8293" data-media-element="1" height="363" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/art-glasses-2.jpg" width="272" /></div>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="8294" data-media-element="1" height="356" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/art-glasses-3.jpg" width="272" /></div>
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<p>TJ and his friends tried other things such as using a hat as an exhibit and repurposing a nearby trashcan but none had the effect that the glasses had&#8230;</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="8289" data-media-element="1" height="540" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/art-hat-prank.jpg" width="536" /></div>
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<p>The Twitterverse applauded their efforts&#8230;</p>
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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed">@BuzzFeed</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AllisonWolpers">@AllisonWolpers</a> LOL so deep.</p>
<p>&#8212; Phil Wolpers (@phamousphil) <a href="https://twitter.com/phamousphil/status/735548752283340800">May 25, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed">@BuzzFeed</a> this describes exactly why I cannot stand the gallery scene!!</p>
<p>&#8212; jonalisa (@JonaLisaG) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonaLisaG/status/735539307503575040">May 25, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed">@BuzzFeed</a> That&#8217;s a funny prank</p>
<p>&#8212; Kyle (@NotAmazingGuy) <a href="https://twitter.com/NotAmazingGuy/status/735542319009673219">May 25, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Exit thought on appreciating modern art&#8230;</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="8297" data-media-element="1" height="396" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/modern-art.jpg" width="395" /></div></p>


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A Teenager Just Played The Greatest Prank In History on ‘Art Experts’ in San Francisco

San Francisco

<p>Take a gander at the newest symbol of the Bernie Sanders movement.</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4901" data-media-element="1" height="314" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/cbgibaqw8aalavo.jpg" width="304" /></div>
<p>Does it remind you anything, perhaps?</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4900" data-media-element="1" height="504" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/nazi_sculptures_lot_9.jpg" width="378" /></div>
<p>This monstrosity has been designed by Shepherd Fairey, the man behind the iconic Obama HOPE poster from 2008 that looked similarly dictatorial:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4899" data-media-element="1" height="387" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/barack_obama_hope_poster.jpg" width="258" /></div>
<p>That poster was reminiscent of this one:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4898" data-media-element="1" height="355" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/2009bw6860_jpg_ds.jpg" width="355" /></div>
<p>Meanwhile, in the Hillary campaign, they&#8217;ve been trotting out similarly historically evocative imagery of the Great Woman gazing into the future:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4897" data-media-element="1" height="330" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/evita1-660x330.gif" width="660" /></div>
<p>Which looks a lot like this image:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="Mao" class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4894" data-media-element="1" height="419" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/e13-549.jpg" width="580" /></div>
<p>On the other side of the aisle, there are no such images. Donald Trump, for all his totalitarian musings, trots out hats that look like they sprang directly from a family reunion barbecue in 1987:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="Make America Great Again" class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4893" data-media-element="1" height="397" src="https://www.dailywire.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2016/02/trump-hat.jpg" width="634" /></div>
<p>Fans of Ted Cruz are more into the self-deprecating, street art feel:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="Cruz Sabo" class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4891" data-media-element="1" height="412" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/ted_cruz_poster_by_sabo.jpg" width="237" /></div>
<p>Meanwhile, Jeb!&#8217;s campaign is just a big dropping exclamation point.</p>
<p>All of which is to say that the left&#8217;s comfort level with fascistic imagery is certainly high. FDR trotted out similar imagery during the Hitler era in the United States, marking companies that complied with federal mandates with the blue eagle:</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="Blue Eagle" class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4890" data-media-element="1" height="240" src="https://www.dailywire.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2016/02/newdealnra.jpg" width="200" /></div>
<p>Leftists in the United States have always been comfortable with such imagery. That&#8217;s because they&#8217;ve never been uncomfortable with the idea of a Great Man dictating policy. Woodrow Wilson said in 1906, &#8220;The president is at liberty both in law and conscience to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit&#8230;.no single force can withstand him, no combination of forces will easily overpower him.&#8221; In 1933, Anne O&#8217;Hare McCormick of The New York Times wrote of FDR&#8217;s Washington D.C. that it was &#8220;strangely reminiscent of Rome in the first weeks after the march of the Blackshirts, of Moscow at the beginning of the Five-Year Plan&#8230;America today literally asks for orders.&#8221; Even the architecture of the period, reflected in today&#8217;s Washington, D.C., looks a lot like the architecture that Mussolini installed in Italy.</p>
<p>Nothing has changed in the Democratic Party. The only question is whether Trotsky or Lenin takes over.</p>
<p>On the right, the imagery of Trump adorning worship walls hasn&#8217;t yet been popularized. But it&#8217;s certainly easier to imagine such imagery than that of Cruz or Rubio.</p>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="Trump celebration" class="media-element file-default" data-fid="4889" data-media-element="1" height="472" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/cnh5f8gwoaa4mwy.jpg" width="583" /></div>
<p>America was invented in opposition to worship of political figures. But the human desire for a Big Man to fix everything seems to be overwhelming us at long last. Its imagery is everywhere. All you have to do is open your eyes.</p>


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