More Banksy!

Okay, so our friend Banksy is making quite a little art darling out of himself.

Here are some shots from his latest "secret L.A. warehouse show", called Barely Legal, which he describes as follows:

"This show has been quite a big undertaking for me; it represents nearly a month of getting up early in the morning. Some of the paintings have taken literally days to make. Essentially, it’s about what a horrible place the world is, how unjust and cruel and pointless life is, and ways to avoid thinking about all that. One of the best ways turned out to be sitting in a warehouse making 50 paintings about cruelty, pain and pointlessness. You get immune. I painted one picture of a Western family eating a picnic in a village of starving African children called I HATE EATING MY DINNER IN FRONT OF THE NEWS, and got so obsessed with painting each and every fly on those kids' faces, I never once thought about a starving kid for a second.

I guess the show is about wanting to make the world a better place whilst not wanting to come across like a jerk. Imagine what would happen if we took all the money we spent on weapons and gave it to the poor. Then I'd have to grow my own cocaine; my manicurist would kill me."

While I appreciate the concept and the installation is beautiful, I'm ambivalent about the painting of live elephants for art. Let's hope he fed him lots of peanuts, I guess. Ah hell, I shouldn't be so uptight - it's a meaningful and clever show. I'm all for the Banksy.

Also, in other 'Banksy is everyone's hero' news, he snuck a life-sized version of a the ubiquitous hooded Guantanamo detainee into Disneyland. Ya gotta love it.