The streets of NYC can surprise you every single day with unexpected reality or made up fantasy. This was the case on October 10th, 2013, when a bizarre and unconventional truck labeled “Farm Fresh Meats” started touring NYC’s Meatpacking District – “The Sirens of the Lambs” truck. The round lasted for a week and a half, enough time to make some smile and some shiver as you can see on the video posted on Banksy’s website.
This statement about the horrors of the meat industry is nothing less than a moving installation filled with stuffed animals squealing with despair. All types of animals’ heads could be seen peering out from this mobile prison, taking them to the death row – the slaughterhouse. No one on the street could be indifferent to this representation of animal cruelty. However, here’s the irony: these same kind of slaughterhouse trucks pass people by everyday, overcrowded of real terrified animals, and yes, they go completely unnoticed.
Every detail of Banksy’s “The Sirens of the Lambs” mobile art installation has a meaning. The word “Sirens” has two possible interpretations. According to Greek mythology, “Sirens” were beautiful creatures that seduced sailors to kill them. Similarly, these teddy-like animals represent those real animals raised in factory farms for our meat consumption. On other hand, the word “Sirens” is, by definition, a warning sound, and in this specific context it is attempting to drive our attention to these needy animals. Moreover, the similarity of the title of this Banksy’s work and the Hollywood movie “The Silence of the Lambs” is glaringly obvious. In the latter “a young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.” Is Banksy trying to tell us that we need to look into the eyes of our eating habits’ victims to change our attitude? Probably yes.
by Daniela Ferraz
finding bksy 
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