Hrag Vartanian has a story on Hyperallergic about Banksy's new video of a Syrian rebel attack resulting in the death of Disney's Dumbo. Vartanian calls it "innocence lost" work by Banksy. The artist is certainly not choosing sides, or is he? The Syrian rebels featured in the footage seem like deranged people attacking lame fictional targets. I'm not sure how Vartanian found out it was altered Syrian War footage rather than the generic footage Vartanian says people will be more likely to think it is when they watch it without being told. Is the genericizing an intentional artistic device, a blurring of one war into many?

Anyway, here is Vartanian's piece about that and two other Banksy projects in New York right now (one a lit spectacle in the back of a van). You can watch Banksy's one-and-a-half-minute video for yourself: