ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

I’m having some wicked flashbacks from looking at British artist Banksy’s New York debut show. When I was a kid, I had a friend who was really into little stuffed mice. Like real mice. Stuffed. She played with them as if they were Barbies or Little People. She loved them, but they just creeped me out. This show is doing the same thing. His show is entitled The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill and it opened up on October 9th at 89 7th Ave. (between Bleeker and West 4th) and will stay upon until October 31st.

The New York Times described some of the items in the show as “A rabbit wearing a pearl necklace files her nails in a window; the coop in the next one has chicken nuggets with legs, busily dipping themselves in sauce.  Inside the store, hot dogs and sausages squirm like snakes in sand-filled terrariums, and the floating fish sticks are so lifelike that a visitor tapped on the tank, as if to get their attention.”

What’s the message you may ask? Banksy said “I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing.”