| Abstract: | Through an analysis of the street artist Banksy's 2013 residency of New York City, I identify two major rhetorical themes: Images of Discontent and Re-Visions of the City. I argue that the Banksy images exert an influential postsubject voice into the visual discourse of New York City, which I define as a visual articulation that resists traditional markings of identity in favor of visual play. In visual play, elements of the city are turned into toys through a critical orientation towards the urban landscape, postmodern aesthetic codes, participatory rhetoric, and the logics of the virtual. I conclude by arguing that play may offer an effective and transgressive mode of engaging contemporary rhetorical argument, particularly within the materiality of place. |
