Banksy
"Life´s to short to take advice from a cushion", 2019
Aerosol spray via stencil on second hand cushions. Including all paperwork from GDP plus original shipping Receipt from Pest Control to first owner.
Ca 40 x 40 cm each (2)
Copyright The Artist
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Original hand sprayed cushions. Unique from an unknown edition (the website originally stated 50 but they are impossible to get and the common opinion is less than 10). All uniques....
Original hand sprayed cushions. Unique from an unknown edition (the website originally stated 50 but they are impossible to get and the common opinion is less than 10). All uniques.
Hang Tag text: "This product has been hand sprayed by Banksy with car paint, which means it almost certainly isn´t machine washable. In fact it´s probably not very wise to hand wash it either. Each cushion set is unique and has been recorede with you as the owner."
Here Banksy cleverly subverts the genre with a pair of cushions that simply state ‘Life’s too short to take advice from a cushion’. While immediately funny to the reader these also present an empathetic response to those who feel overwhelmed by the barrage of positivity hawked by homewares brands and Instagram influencers that can often make the average person feel inadequate when faced with their own negative feelings. In a world where structural inequality and austerity prevents many from ‘chasing their dreams’ it is easy to feel embittered by cushions proclaiming that ‘the only limit is your imagination’.
One of the most highly sought after products in Banksy’s Gross Domestic Product shop, each pair of cushions is unique, as they are ‘upcycled’ from ‘what gets found in the charity shop’. With their tongue in cheek message they are perfectly at home in the work of Banksy whose particular brand of dark humour, which often relies on wordplay to poke fun at the state and figures of authority, has brought him many fans.
At the time of the GDP launch many of Banksy’s artworks had already been made into cushions by entrepreneuring companies who took advantage of the artist’s lack of trademark to produce soft furnishings featuring his famous Girl With Balloon or Flower Thrower artworks, allowing fans to buy their own little bit of subversive street art, now neatly and cheaply commercialised. In fact the GDP shop came about as a result of one of these companies taking action to acquire the rights to the artist’s name; with this venture Banksy ensured he retained control over the line of products released with his designs and could now show the imitators to be counterfeiters.
Hang Tag text: "This product has been hand sprayed by Banksy with car paint, which means it almost certainly isn´t machine washable. In fact it´s probably not very wise to hand wash it either. Each cushion set is unique and has been recorede with you as the owner."
Here Banksy cleverly subverts the genre with a pair of cushions that simply state ‘Life’s too short to take advice from a cushion’. While immediately funny to the reader these also present an empathetic response to those who feel overwhelmed by the barrage of positivity hawked by homewares brands and Instagram influencers that can often make the average person feel inadequate when faced with their own negative feelings. In a world where structural inequality and austerity prevents many from ‘chasing their dreams’ it is easy to feel embittered by cushions proclaiming that ‘the only limit is your imagination’.
One of the most highly sought after products in Banksy’s Gross Domestic Product shop, each pair of cushions is unique, as they are ‘upcycled’ from ‘what gets found in the charity shop’. With their tongue in cheek message they are perfectly at home in the work of Banksy whose particular brand of dark humour, which often relies on wordplay to poke fun at the state and figures of authority, has brought him many fans.
At the time of the GDP launch many of Banksy’s artworks had already been made into cushions by entrepreneuring companies who took advantage of the artist’s lack of trademark to produce soft furnishings featuring his famous Girl With Balloon or Flower Thrower artworks, allowing fans to buy their own little bit of subversive street art, now neatly and cheaply commercialised. In fact the GDP shop came about as a result of one of these companies taking action to acquire the rights to the artist’s name; with this venture Banksy ensured he retained control over the line of products released with his designs and could now show the imitators to be counterfeiters.