Banksy Nails Packard Plant and Winds Up in Gallery

British street artist Banksy recently made a trip to Detroit, Michigan, there to create several of his inimitable works. One situated in the post-apocalyptic site of the long-abandoned Packard Motors factory (shown above) has sparked a polemic. The work makes sense in its context, within in the sprawling, spectacularly rundown site of the Packard plant, where its plaintive message can't help but resonate with those pining for the mythic era in which the United States had yet to be decimated by the impact of capitalism gone wild.

The piece was apparently later removed via forklit, wall and all, by an entity known as the 555 Nonprofit Studio and Gallery, raising questions about ownership and whether the work should have been left to its fate in the great outdoors. It's worth visiting the Autoblog site to get the background on the tragic saga of the Packard plant, complete with a photo gallery that looks more like a movie set than an echo of long-gone industrial glory. And where is the elusive Banksy in all this? Who knows.

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Chris Dickman
Founding Editor, Graphics.com

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