I’ll whitewash it out: protest by artist who paid £568k for Poundland Banksy
AN AMERICAN artist who paid a sixfigure sum for a Banksy artwork painted on a north London pound shop claims he is going to whitewash it in protest at the sale of street art.
Ron English paid $730,000 (£568,000) for Slave Labour which depicts a child on his knees at a sewing machine, producing a string of Union Jack bunting.
Originally painted on the side of a Poundland in Wood Green, the work was removed in 2013 despite protests by locals who demanded its return.
English, who has collaborated with Banksy on projects in the past, bought it at auction in Los Angeles last night.
He said: “My idea for this painting is to whitewash it for my good pal Banksy, I only wish I could’ve spent more money for it. I’m going to paint it white again, I’m done. This is a blow for street art. It shouldn’t be bought and sold.
“I’m going to paint over it and just include it in one of the walls in my house. We’re tired of people stealing our stuff off the streets and re-selling it, so I’m just going to buy everything I can get my hands on and whitewash it.”
But English, who told reporters he was “crazy but... not stupid”, then said he would “sell the whitewash painting for a million dollars”, in a reference to Banksy’s latest stunt when one of his works partially shredded itself after the hammer came down.
Girl With Balloon sold for £1.04 million at Sotheby’s in London last month before the canvas passed through a shredder installed in the frame. The buyer later confirmed they were going through with the sale.
Slave Labour appeared on the wall in Whymark Avenue, near Turnpike Lane Tube, in May 2012. It was widely interp re te d a s c o n d e mn i n g child labour and mocking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
It disappeared the following February before being sold at auction later in 2013. The site of the mural has since been repainted, with amateur street artists daubing the wall with Banksy-style stencils. Retail worker Reece Martin, 27, said today: “The fact the original was taken down and sold off was disgraceful. Banksy created it for the people here and it should not have been removed.”
John Partridge, 42, an engineer, said: “What annoys me is that it was taken from here, an area that doesn’t have much, and we will see nothing of it.
“It’s now worth more than some flats around here. Where’s the sense?
“I don’t really care if its painted over or kept intact. Its never coming back h e re .” G ra p h i c d e s i g n e r Inyoung Choi, 28, said the sale was “a bit of a contradiction”, adding: “I don’t think its in the spirit of street art at all.”
Slave Labour is not the first work by the secretive artist that has been sold against his wishes. His mural No Ball Games was removed from a wall in Tottenham in 2009 and eventually auctioned off.