The street artist Banksy, who is in New York for a one month residency, has posted a video of the Disney character Dumbo getting shot down by Islamic extremists. It depicts a reenactment of a group of rebels, in the desert, with a rocket launcher, shooting an object in the sky. Their ecstatic behaviour is filmed as the airborne craft crashes to the ground. As it gets closer to impact it is revealed as none other than Dumbo. A child than runs up to the soldier and kicks him in the shins.
The video, was posted on the Banksy website earlier today and has 80,000 hits at the time of this publication. It is expected to go viral on YouTube. The 90-second video includes the message ‘I’m not posting any pictures today. Not after this shocking footage has emerged…’.
The unconventional UK graffiti artist Banksy’s work typically includes satirical social and political commentary, and ranges from murals to sculpture and installation, often playing with the contextual aspects of the work. The artist’s first solo show was held in 2002 at Los Angeles’ 33 1/3 Gallery, and in 2003 he was commissioned to design to cover of Blur’s ThinkTank. Today, Banksy’s work appears internationally; most notably, he painted nine sardonic images on the Palestinian side of the West Bank barrier. In Summer 2009, Banksy took over the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery with an exhibition attracting over 300,000 visitors and hour-long queues all the way down the road.
Recently the artist has experimented with film, achieving an Oscar nomination for his documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. Consistently controversial, Banksy is described by some as genius and others as a vandal. Regardless of whether he is inspiring admiration or provoking outrage, his name is one that is well-known around the world. His early career, between 1990 and 1994, was that of a traditional freehand graffiti artist in the Bristol underground scene. The stenciling technique for the ‘guerrilla art’ for which he is now better known was first seen around 2000 and is widely thought to have been inspired by Blek le Rat (Xavier Prou), one of the first Parisian graffiti artists who is also known as the ‘Father of Stencil Graffiti.’ Banksy is currently in New York for a residency that has seen him create a new work of art every day so far. This burst of creativity is expected to run for a full month. The jihadist video was posted on day six.
View Video Here