In Banksy’s world, you and Fluffy the pet rabbit can sweep pink blush against your porcelain cheekbones (and, er, fur) as you get ready for a night of wild club hopping together. The enigmatic British street artist has designed a mock-pet store in the West Village in which animals adopt human mannerisms and are displayed as manufactured edible and material goods. Titled “The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill”, the art exhibition bridges animal and human behaviors and habitats into a trippy world of encaged frat boy chimps and makeup-applying Peter (or Patty, more accurately) Cottontails. A monkey sits behind an episode of mating chimpanzees on the Discovery Channel, a crushed beer can under his foot and headphones perched on his ears. The white rabbit perfects her appearance in a vanity mirror complete with used nail polish bottles and eye shadows.

Not only does Banksy provoke the questioning of animal humanization with these two characters (think the emergence of doggie boutiques and fitness centers), but he also portrays them as literal products of human intervention in the natural world. In one cage, a poised hen overlooks two fried chicken nuggets self-sacrificially dipping themselves into barbecue sauce and a scrambled egg hatching from its shell. A wall of creepily pulsating, caged lunchmeat is placed beside a vertical rack of packaged lunchmeat that appears to be part of the store. Two mammoth fish sticks swim in a bowl, and a lizard emerges from a discarded Louis Vuitton purse, the same logo etched on its back. Human consumption has invaded the animal world, and you should continue our species’ hedonistic whims by seeing this exhibit in person! If this description didn’t wet your whistle and you don’t have the time to head over to 89 7th Ave. S. between W. 4th and Bleecker, you can check out the Times’ photoshoot.
Photos by Allix Geneslaw