NEW ORLEANS – Nearly 20 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, BANKSY’s Boy on a Life Preserver Swing will be unveiled to the public at the International House Hotel on Nov. 1. This installation celebrates the resilience of New Orleans, the strength of community and the spirit of creative rebels worldwide.
Visionary entrepreneur and New Orleans native Sean Cummings has created properties including International House and Kingsway Studio. Beyond contributions to real estate, he has dedicated his career to revitalizing New Orleans’ art scene, championing local street artists, and funding community-driven initiatives that celebrate the city’s creative spirit.
In August 2008, BANKSY created 16 stencils around New Orleans, and, with the help of an internationally-recognized conservationist, Cummings conserved one of those murals, which was removed from the side of his warehouse at the edge of the French Quarter. It was unveiled in 2013 and remains on public display in the lobby of International House.
More than a decade later, in 2021, Cummings received an anonymous text from a man named ‘Sam,’ claiming to have 30 cinder blocks from a BANKSY originally stenciled on the side of a now-demolished lounge. After verifying the blocks’ authenticity with conservationist Elise Grenier, Cummings and Grenier purchased them from Sam. Once assembled, the mural Boy on a Life Preserver Swing could be recognized, though still obscured by a layer of red spray paint.
Feeling defeated and with no known means to remove spray paint from spray paint, Cummings says what came next was “a kiss on the cheek from the Universe.” Grenier’s colleague, a chemist and conservationist in Florence, announced he had invented a liquid gel that, when applied, removes a single layer of aerosol paint – ideally leaving spray paint below completely intact. Thus began a daunting, first-of-its-kind conservation effort in the height of the COVID pandemic, as Grenier applied quarts of the inventor’s gel, successfully removing the top layer of spray paint to reveal once again BANKSY’s artwork.
With the help of gifted masons, the Crider Family, the cinder blocks were re-assembled as a wall and placed on a rolling base. On February 3, 2023, two years to the day of that first anonymous text message from “Sam”, BANKSY’s Boy on a Life Preserver Swing was saved.
“I admire rebels,” said Cummings. “Like Emile Zola said, ‘If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, came to live out loud.’ BANKSY is a rebel, and certainly came to live out loud. In 2008, his 16 stencils reminded the world that New Orleans matters. So, with great gratitude, I feel impossibly lucky to save this mural and put it back where street art belongs – on public display.”
In a testament to the city’s resilience and unwavering spirit, BANKSY’s Boy on a Life Preserver Swing will be unveiled on Nov. 1 and viewable by the public at any time in the lobby of International House at 221 Camp St.
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