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They don't like to see anybody winning

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They don't like to see anybody winning." He adds: "I'm sure the shops nearby will hate us, too Everything will be really cheap. We'll be there for the busiest shopping period of the year, then we'll disappear Let's face it, I'm never going to open a shop again. Right now, the retail world is at full-tilt: the shop doors - and the cash registers - are wide open and waiting to suck us all in. But if you rail against the commercialisation of Christmas, while getting to grips with a present-list that's longer than your scarf, you may be interested to know about a very different shopping experience just a short stagger away from this bedlam.Santa's Ghetto is a temporary shop set up in abandoned premises just off Carnaby Street, described as a "festive extravaganza of cheap art and related novelty goods from lowbrow artists and trained vandals". Both can be found in the bookshop at Tate Britain, whose staff recently had to remove a Banksy oil painting that was sneaked in and glued to a wall in the gallery. "People often ask whether graffiti is art," said Banksy, in response to the stunt. "Well, it must be, now - it's hanging in the Tate!"Today's most pressing concern for Banksy, however, is that as yet, no one knows quite how the shop is going to work. "We can't have some punter coming in on the first day and buying up the whole shop in one go.

(Are you listening, Charles Saatchi?) "There'll have to be some kind of consumer control. We'll see what happens."Banksy is rare among graffiti artists in that he actually makes money from his creations. But the fact that he is now in a position to sell his work for large sums is proving difficult, he admits "Both sides kick up," he says "Whether it's the Daily Mail or fellow-graffiti vandals. Yours for £22 a pair.Other goods on sale include T-shirts, hoodies, bags and stickers. There's also Banksy's new book Cut It Out (£4.99), a follow-on from his previous pocket books, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall and Existencillism. Another Hewlett print, M16 Assault Lolly (£54.99), is described as "a mouth-watering nine-colour screenprint highlighting the violence and brutality of the iced-confectionery industry"."When we decided to open the shop, we had reached a point where the art world seemed to us largely uninspiring," says Hewlett. Art gets sold for extortionate amounts that normal people cannot afford, and that seems wrong.

We wanted to undermine the existing art community and show that you can do it cheaply Young people don't have huge bank balances. We hope that students can decorate their flats with our work."There will be an unlimited number of prints," continues Hewlett, who is, as we speak, customising a batch of Puma trainers that the sportswear company donated to the artists for sale in the shop He is scribbling "Nike" on them with a felt-tip pen. Why has art got to be so expensive? We know how long it takes to make. "It is interesting how religious figures in art wear hooded tops that make them look like glue-sniffing teenagers," he says.Most prices in Santa's Ghetto are reasonable.

A Banksy print entitled Happy Choppers, depicting an Apache helicopter trimmed with a pink ribbon tied in a huge bow, is priced at £44.99. Jamie Hewlett, known for his punk pin-up cartoon Tank Girl and Damon Albarn's animated band Gorillaz, is selling prints with titles such as Big Sponge Finger at £54.99. It is a painting on MDF of Christ on the cross, his outstretched arms laden with bags of shopping. It's a challenging image - "an offensive dripping acrylic," says the artist - which will be on sale in the shop. It's not to everyone's taste, of course, and that is exactly why Bob Geldof has expressed an interest in borrowing it for a project in which controversial images are to be projected on to the side of Tower Bridge. There are two more paintings on a religious theme, featuring the Virgin Mary.

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