October 23, 2018

Banksy’s Balloon Girl Art Shredding Stunt Makes Millions

We can’t all be cultured. In fact, sometimes it’s fun to be uncultured and give no fucks about anything but beer and well… beer. But we recently dropped a new Banksy shirt after his infamous painting that shredded at a Sotheby’s auction, and if you’re totally lost, relax, we’re gonna fill you in.

Who Is Banksy - Shredded Banksy Artwork Balloon Girl Reactions

Who is Banksy?

Banksy is an anonymous British street artist whose stunts — and talent, depending on who you ask — have put him on an international stage.

He goes around posting graffiti wherever he wants and saying all kinds of fuckin shit, while having a squad of goons close to him keep his identity a total secret. Mind you, this has been going on for decades.

He also is known as anti-capitalist, but at the same time he’s fucking loaded.

Oh, and we can’t forget to mention that he’s also a film director apparently… so this dude is really trying to have it all.

Moral of the story? Banksy’s persona is a total joke, but people still fawn at his feet anyways.

In many people’s opinions, he’s a grade A fuckboy who quite literally disguises himself as an anti-consumerist douche.

Just admit it bro, you like making money.

But that’s not how he’s seen to the art community, or even some average Joes.

For every 10 people who hate Banksy, there’s someone who is absolutely obsessed with this dude.

People like to circle jerk him, and much of it is due to the mystique surrounding his identity — and most recently, the piece “Love Is In The Bin” that he decided to shred.

Originally the piece was called “Balloon Girl.” (We know, he’s really freaking original.)

But in case you haven’t heard about his most recent stunt, let us tell you how the Banksy “Balloon Girl” became “Love Is In The Bin.”

Banksy’s Balloon Girl Art Shredding Stunt

At an art auction at Sotheby’s in London, Banksy’s “Balloon Girl” was sold for 1.04 million pounds.

For those of us who can’t do conversions in our heads, we’ll make it easy: it’s about 1.3 million over here in America.

Right after “Balloon Girl” sold, an alarm went off inside of the picture frame and the canvas went through an internal shredder.

Yeah, you read that right.

Some innocent art snob bought this expensive ass canvas, only to have it partially shredded just minutes later. Banksy, who we already warned you is a fuckboy, posted a picture of the shredding on his Instagram with the caption “Going, going, gone…”

How’s that for a slap in the face? (But it makes for a pretty dope t-shirt name if you ask us.)

Of course, this controversial prank instantly increased the value of “Balloon Girl,” and the woman who won the bidding went through with the purchase — which, like we said, is now called “Love Is In The Bin.”

We get that we may be boring some of you guys by now. So if your attention is the only thing that’s in the bin and you don’t give a flying fuck about artwork or millionaires who waste shit for a living, you might be like these people who are either trolls, apathetic, skeptical, or just plain pissed off.

Most Common Banksy Art Shredding Reaction:

Artist Reactions:

The rest of us are just enjoying the shitshow like these hilariously fine folks:

And the Banksy reaction comeback of the year award goes to:

And our personal favorite Banksy Art Shredding Reactions:

As you can see, there’s a lot of hate that’s thrown Banksy’s way.

And to be honest, we kind of get it. It must be nice to make some basic ass art with stencils, sell it for a shit ton of money, then essentially have it self-destruct after the person buys it.

It’s a total troll move, so people who go gaga for Banksy are often met with the side-eye from people like the disgruntled Twitter users above.

Naturally, the stunt remains divisive. What could easily be an 8th grader’s middle school art project — or some bullshit they made at summer camp — has now become a multimillion-dollar piece.

Note to self: we’re spending our weekends wrong and should be at JoAnne Fabrics buying a canvas, stencils, and paint.

Everyone’s not a Banksy hater though, and like we said, there are plenty of people who think his whole act is pretty damn cool. And if that’s your vibe, we respect it.

So if you do like Banksy and you know all about his most recent antics, you should probably rock this newly released merch we’re about to plug.

That way you can confuse — or downright piss off — all the friends in your life who just don’t get the hype.

While rocking our Banky t-shirt that pays homage to the shit storm at Sotheby, you’re sure to be met with lots of eye rolls.

Like, a crap ton.

But there’s sure to be a friend or two who daps you up for being sophisticated AF.

Banksy T Shirt - Shredded Banksy Artwork Balloon Girl

After all, sometimes it’s cool to be pretentious and act like you’re the kind of person who has their shit together and drinks tea with their pinky up.

Ya know, the type of person whose dishwasher is always unloaded and actually puts their laundry away right when it comes out of the dryer.

Chances are that you don’t check all of those boxes though, because if you did, you sure as hell wouldn’t be here.

But if you’re kind of, sort of, a littleeee bit cultured and ready to cop this dope Banksy shirt, be our guest.

Oh, and we’ve got the Banky shirt for women, too!

Written by Patrick McManis