Following Hurricane Katrina Banksy paid a visit and painted a number of pieces around the city. I guess his way of sharing their plight and also as a means to bring some tourism into the city. Over the years since his visit most of the pieces have gone and researching the city showed 3 remaining visible pieces. So whilst in New Orleans I took some time each morning to go and track down each of them.
The first was the easiest to find located just a short walk from the hotel not far from the overhead interstate that splits the garden district from the warehouse district. The character he's painted here is a legendary graffiti remover in the city nicknamed The Grey Ghost who is famous for removing pieces with the same shade of paint.
The second piece is another Grey Ghost character. This was located south of my hotel near The Mardi Gras Museum and the old fire station building that it's on used to be derelict but it has recently been purchased and there were a number of people working in and around it. So not wanting to upset them I waited for them to disappear then reached over their back fence to get this one.
The final piece was located on the side of a Drop In Center in Treme, one of the more run down areas of the city. I was very lucky to get this as in the weeks leading into the trip an attempt to remove it was made and thwarted and the piece was temporarily boarded up. Not only was the boarding removed, on my visit they had also just replaced the laminate protecting it. This one best sums up the plight of the New Orleans folks and portrays the trust the city had in its water defences only to be let down by them.
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