The enigma that is Banksy has begun a month-long “residence” in New York . . . and basically all the works he’s put up so far have been immediately vandalized and defaced. The project—titled “Better Out Than In”—started somewhat inauspiciously, as the first two pieces were quickly covered in graffiti. The first—which seemed to be anticipating the sullying to come—showcased a boy (standing on another boy’s shoulders) reaching to a sign emblazoned with the message “GRAFFITI IS A CRIME.” The image—which was quickly covered over by an unknown graffiti assailant with the vaguely gross exclamation “Sweaty palms made me lose the love of my life!”—was accompanied by a phone number, which provided an audio commentary of the piece: “Before you, you will see a spray art by the artist Banksy. Or maybe not. It’s probably been painted over by now.” The second piece, which was discovered in Chelsea, consisted of the message “THIS IS MY NEW YORK ACCENT” in a brash font painted above a much-smaller “ . . . normally I write like this” in a formal script. That one got vandalized, too. And this pattern has continued with subsequent pieces.

All of this painting-over casts something of a (admittedly brightly-colored) pall over the entire residency, no? Today’s piece showed up in Brooklyn (also appearing on his Instagram), and it’s a bandaged red balloon and it’s wistful and lovely and looks like the kind of thing that would get thousands of reblogs on Tumblr. But the knowledge that it’s probably minutes away from getting tarnished with a tag or paint job, like a museum artifact doused in Nickelodeon slime, makes it hard to really, fully revel in it. Still, perhaps that’s the point (as the prophetic audio message connected with the first work may suggest), as Banksy may be trying to convey that everything beautiful is quickly sullied, nothing stays pure for long, or something like that. If you live in New York and are in the mood for a brief pilgrimage, the red balloon is up at the corner of King Street and Van Brunt. But be forewarned: it may pop at any instant.