page_title: Better Out Than In
section_title: Works
hierarchical_section_title: Better Out Than In / Works
caption_attribution_description: English: Flowers next to the depicted Twin Towers in the 15th installment from Banksy's "Better Out Than In" October 2013 New York City residency.
context_page_description: Better Out Than In was a residency undertaken by pseudonymous graffiti artist and political activist Banksy in New York City during October 2013. Banksy unveiled at least one work of art daily, documenting it on both a dedicated website and an Instagram account. The majority of the works were stencil graffiti and chiefly political, a distinctive characteristic of Banksy. Other pieces and multimedia exhibits toyed with dark humor and satire.
  The unpredictability of the show and Banksy's elusive nature stirred excitement amongst fans, while defacement from competing street artists and vandals became an imminent problem. While Banksy's works were inherently illegal, no official complaints were reported to the police; most property owners praised the art and some took measures to protect it. The month-long residency drew controversy amongst some locals for its more politically strong pieces, and received mixed reviews from critics.
  An HBO documentary film covering this period and residency titled Banksy Does New York was released in 2014.
context_section_description: The works Banksy has included in Better Out Than In primarily consist of stencil graffiti, much of which are political in nature. His first installment, which he captioned "the street is in play", depicted a child reaching for a bottle of spray paint on a sign reading "graffiti is a crime". The sign was stolen and later replaced by Queens-based graffiti group Smart Crew with a new sign that read "street art is a crime". Like most of his other works, the piece has audio accompaniment that can be heard either on the website or by calling a toll-free 800 number.
  In the East Village, Banksy's fifth work was housed in a delivery truck as a "mobile garden," which included theatrical property showing a rainbow, waterfall, and butterflies. The following day Banksy posted a photo of a tracking device he found under the vehicle.
  Banksy's installments are located all across the five boroughs, with some being purely multimedia exhibits. On 6 October, as a way to have made an installment in Dumbo, Brooklyn, a primary arts district of the city, Banksy posted a video featuring the Walt Disney character Dumbo being shot down by Syrian rebels, the meaning behind which puzzled many.
  On 9 October, Banksy unveiled one of the more elaborate and politically strong pieces of the series. It featured armed soldiers and horses spray-painted on a car and trailer in an empty lot in the Lower East Side. Instead of commentary about the work, the accompanying audio was that of a classified video from the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike. After being dismantled, the car was towed away to prevent further defacement.
  Day 11 saw an elaborate political display questioning the "casual cruelty" of the meat industry. Entitled Sirens of the Lambs, Banksy drove around a military-style cargo truck filled with squealing, stuffed animatronic livestock. The truck fittingly made its debut in Meatpacking District, Manhattan, but toured the rest of the city in the following weeks.
  On 13 October, Banksy made headlines when it was revealed that the art an older man was selling outside Central Park was actually authentic, signed Banksy canvases, sold for only $60 each. Having not announced this beforehand, tourists and park goers were unaware of the value the paintings had, which the BBC estimated could be upwards of $32,000 each. Banksy posted a video on his website chronicling the surprise sale, which revealed that a total of seven paintings were sold for $420 taking.  A woman from New Zealand who bought two for $60 each later sold them for £125,000 at a London auction in 2014.
  Banksy unveiled one of his most controversial pieces of the series on 15 October, with a depiction of the Lower Manhattan skyline featuring the former Twin Towers, with a burnt-orange chrysanthemum in place where one of the hijacked airplanes struck the North Tower. The silhouette appeared on the side of a building in TriBeCa, with an identical depiction along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, facing the downtown skyline. The Brooklyn Heights piece was eventually buffed out by the city, requiring chemicals and a high-powered pressure washer. The removal followed a taunt Banksy had directed toward the city on his website. Meanwhile, the sister piece in TriBeCa served as a shrine, people placing flowers next to it, as well as a letter asking no one to touch the painting. Acrylic glass was eventually installed to protect the piece, before someone painted over it.
  Banksy extended his work beyond the canvas and city street with other political statements, including on 16 October, when he crafted a giant fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald, with a real live Banksy assistant shining its shoes. It was unveiled in the Bronx but was moved outside of a different McDonald's restaurant across the city around lunch time for several days. The work criticized the "heavy labor required to sustain the polished image of a mega-corporation", as the narrator of the audio accompaniment put it.
  On 18 October there was a pair of paintings that Banksy collaborated on with Os Gemeos depicting a single soldier amongst m
caption: Flowers left in TriBeCa at Banksy's depiction of the former World Trade Center
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S95", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2013:10:15 13:38:50", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3970", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6085", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity and Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:10:15 13:38:50", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:10:15 13:38:50", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "157/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "107/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3648", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2736", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3774", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "912000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "912000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}