I’m in love with Banksy!!
One of the assigned texts for my Festish Appeal: Desire and Consumption class is on “Wall and Piece” by known-unknown graffiti artist Banksy.
Being the frugal student that I am, I decided to get it from the Toronto Library. No sense buying a book that for a class that I’m only going to use once, right?
Well, let’s just say, I want to meet this guy (or guys, or girl) and become their life long buddy. Banksy’s work and approach to his work is genius!
Here’s a lil Wiki-info on who Banksy is:
Banksy is an English-based graffiti artist, political activist and film director whose real identity is unknown. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.[1] Banksy’s work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.[2] Observers have noted that his style is similar toBlek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris.[3][4]
Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. Banksy does not sell photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.[6]
Banksy once characterised graffiti as a form of underclass “revenge”, or guerilla warfare that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy.[29] Banksy sees a social class component to this struggle, remarking “If you don’t own a train company then you go and paint on one instead.”[29] Banksy’s work has also shown a desire to mock centralised power, hoping that his work will show the public that although power does exist and works against you, that power is not terribly efficient and it can and should be deceived.[29]
Banksy’s works have dealt with various political and social themes, including anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism,anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, nihilism, and existentialism. Additionally, the components of the human condition that his works commonly critique are greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair, absurdity, and alienation.[152] Although Banksy’s works usually rely on visual imagery and iconography to put forth his message, he has made several politically related comments in his various books. While facetiously describing his political nature, Banksy declared that “Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world, I can’t even finish my second apple pie.”[154]
Banksy takes spray paint to another level. It takes creative ingenuity to strategically place graffiti in the most inconspicuous, yet blatantly obvious, public places to express a message. On top of that, no one knows who Banksy is. He’s been nominated for awards, granted awards, but never shows up.
He even held a one day pop-up shop in Central Park that was run by some random old guy where he sold pieces for $60. The only way anyone knew about it, was if they happened across the message on his website or social media account. Otherwise people walked on by. GENIUS!
On 1 October, Banksy began a one-month “show on the streets of New York [City]“, for which he opened a separate website[89] and granted an interview to The Village Voice via his publicist.[90]
A pop-up boutique of about 25 spray-art canvases appeared on Fifth Avenue near Central Park on 12 October. Tourists were able to buy Banksy art for just $60 each. In a note posted to his website, the artist wrote: “Please note this was a one-off. The stall will not be there again.” The BBC estimated that the street-stall art pieces could be worth as much as $31,000. The booth was manned by an unknown elderly man who went about four hours before making a sale, yawning and eating lunch as people strolled by without a second glance at the work. Banksy chronicled the surprise sale in a video posted to his website noting, “Yesterday I set up a stall in the park selling 100% authentic original signed Banksy canvases. For $60 each.”[91][92][93] Two of the canvasses sold at a July 2014 auction for $214,000.[94]
So now I’m going to pull out my iPad and purchase his Artbook off Amazon. Then hope he holds another popup shop – this time somewhere in Toronto, so I can purchase 4 pieces; 2 of which I would keep in my personal collection for life and 2 of which I definitely would auction off.
The Passion Curator 