After opening up a showcase store located in South London lasat week, Banksy has followed up as promised with an online shop called Gross Domestic Product, described as selling “art, homewares and disappointment.” The store is part of a legal effort enabling the artist to push back on people profiting from reproductions of his work.
As one might anticipate, Banksy’s store rules are anything by typical. The landing page for the shop reads, “The shop is not first come, first served. Due to the limited number of products currently available we are opening a registration system. You have until 28th October to browse the shop and register your interest to buy a product. Please pick one item only, then enter your details and answer the question,” (which is written as: “Why does art matter?”)
While there are now 21 items listed on the shop, at least one, a welcome mat, is shown as sold out, while other pieces including a Tony the Tiger rug is described as “coming soon.” Additional offerings include a coffee mug (£10.00), a group of graffiti tagged shirts (£30.00), the bullet-proof vest worn by Stormzy at the summer ’19 Glastonbury Festival (£850), as well a print run of 300, signed Jean-Michel Basquiat homage prints (£500).
Descriptions for the items are often self-deprecating and in some cases comment on Banksy’s efforts to thwart knock off shops. For the white Banksy balloon t-shirt adorned with a red, heart-shaped jewel, the caption reads, “This image has been the jewel in the crown of every Banksy bootlegger for the past 15 years, now the first official version comes with an actual jewel on it. Screenprint on guilt-free fair trade tee with pendant.”
The terms and conditions associated with the shop are lengthy and include rules meant to discourage resellers. One item reads, “In an effort to sell things to people who want them, rather than people who want to make a profit, GDP reserves the right to refuse to sell to and refund (if applicable) any person who advertises their item for sale prior to them being in receipt of said item.”
