Banksy's Gone

The art world was stunned when Banksy's painting of a girl with a red balloon shredded itself as soon as the auction hammer fell for $1.4 million dollars. Banksy's message sent at the same time was, "Going, going, gone." Banksy is supposed to be British though no one knows for certain but I know an artist who many years ago had a very large work on display in a gallery in Salt Lake City, a self-portrait, that shredded itself while everyone watched. My friend's shredding was done very slowly by hand cranking a shredder through which the art was rolled as a sort of performance piece during the run of the gallery show. I was mildly perturbed by the act but he owned the piece and it was his statement. He, like many artists I know, believes art should be more ephemeral than permanent. I don't know the whole story behind the Banksy event but he might feel the same as my friend.