Blogging the Book: Chapter Four- Finding His Own Style

If I didn’t think Banksy was an outsider before reading this chapter, my mind has been completely made up. Ellsworth-Jones discusses more in depth how Banksy became a stencil artist and what that means to the graffiti community as a whole. 

Banksy says in his own book, Wall and Piece, that he made the switch to stencils after he took too long on a free hand graffiti piece and was almost caught by the police. Later he has been quoted in saying that he just isn’t quick enough working free hand and quite frankly so bad with a spray can to the point where he knew he needed to make a change. 

This natural impetus to make a change in his style is what made Banksy famous. “…however talented Banksy was as a freehand artist, it is still fair to say that if he had stuck to his freehand style he would probably still be doing it in Bristol today, and probably no one other than the tight circle of the city’s graffiti artists and ex-artists would have ever heard of him.” (Pg. 60)

Banksy separates himself even further from traditional graffiti artists because he even stencils his tag (pictured above). This is seen as “cheating” or breaking the rules/code by many artists in the field, but Banksy does not seem to care. He knows that he is an outsider among outsiders.

While it might be easy to label Banksy as an original artist, one other stencil artist did come before him and seem to have much influence over his work. The Parisian artist Blek Le Rat used stencils years before Banksy. Once researching Blek Le Rat, it is almost impossible to separate the difference between him and Banksy. 

So, while Banksy is seen as an outsider by his contemporaries, it is evident that right now the rest of the world reveres him. His pieces are selling for obscene amounts of money, especially when you consider that traditional street artists generally do not approve of it. He is a rouge, but that is what made him famous. So famous in fact that one piece, The Mild Mild West was going to become a new landmark with coffee shops and a glass enclosure to protect it. When it was defaced by a disgruntled group, they were quick to point out that they were not breaking any code of street art. Quoted saying: “Come on, you only care about it cos it’s a Banksy and he sells his lazy polemics to Hollywood movie stars for big bucks. Come on, you only care about it cos it makes you feel edgy and urban…Graffiti artists are the copywriters for the capitalist created phenomenon of urban art. Graffiti artist are the performing spray-can monkeys for gentrification.” (Pg. 71). They see Banksy as part of the establishment now, another illegal wall that they want to put their mark on. 

Blogging the Book: Chapter Three- Graffiti Decoded

David Samuel, the author’s guide into the world of graffiti, says that graffiti is “A lawless activity with a million and one laws” (Pg. 37). It is a way of life that is meant only for the initiated, and only if they follow and respect the rules of those who came before them while breaking the rules of society. 

This unity of thought might have saved kids from going into worse, more dangerous after school activities. Gangs, theft, drugs…many artists credit graffiti art with giving them a way out of that lifestyle. It begs the question, is graffiti vandalism or a way out of vandalism? 

Graffiti as an art form is used as a way to promote one’s ego, which is why tags are comprised mostly of names of the artists. It is an ego trip, the bigger and more elaborate (and, yes, more illegal) the tag is, the more credit the artist receives. It is a society of peers, not an international audience. 

David Samuel said something that confused me at first, but as the chapter progressed I began to understand: Banksy is not a a graffiti artist. Going to to bomb a wall in the heat of the moment is graffiti, but stenciling out a design and planning beforehand does not qualify according to Samuel. 

Because of this, there has been some discrimination against Banksy among “true” graffiti artists. Graffiti is a craft that takes time to create in a dangerous situation, but in their eyes quick in-and-out stencil jobs are cheating the system.

Banksy further upset the status quo when painting over King Robbo’s legendary tag with his own artwork. This battle (outlined in our previous post) showed that Banksy not only disrespected the “craft” of graffiti art but also the hierarchy of elders associated with it. 

So, maybe graffiti is a way to get at risk kids out of bigger trouble. But I think that Banksy’s street art could also qualify as such. Banksy gets painted over and defaced just as much as traditional graffiti artists, but because of his style and medium he will never be truly accepted as a graffiti artist and will have to remain under the all encompassing label “street art.” 

Blogging the Book: Chapter Two- Once Upon a Time

This chapter talks mainly about the backstory of Banksy, the history of the area where he got his start in graffiti art, and a little bit about street art itself in Bristol.

“Banksy” is a persona, not a person. The world knows only what Banksy wants it to know about himself, his past, and his motives. Most of his interviews are conducted by e-mail, with the interviewing party having to trust that they are speaking to the actual Banksy and not an impersonator. By remaining anonymous Banksy is able to present himself as an “everyman” that anyone can identify with. But he also paints his own picture of “Banksy” by dropping clues as to who he really is, or who he wants us to think he is. 

Banksy once said that he comes from a working class background, but this proves to be a fabricated lie in order to help maintain his image. Banksy actually attended a well-to-do school and received a top level education. So, why does Banksy feel the need to alter his background? Could it have anything to do with the stereotypical portrayal of graffiti artists as lower income thug types? I think it is apparent that in order to fit in with the crowd at Bristol, which was a rather rough crowd at the time, he would had to lie about his background. But also, this persona that he created might have helped shape a public image of graffiti artists that is not necessarily honest or true. 

When John Nation started his “aerosol art” movement at Barton Hill, he gave birth to a place that made street art legal in this one area of Bristol. Youths from bad neighborhoods (again, reinforcing the stereotype) could come together and legally paint during the day and then would go out and tag illegally at night. 

Arrests were eventually made at Barton Hill, and many artists were fined for damaging property. Banksy was too young and not yet involved in this scene to get into trouble, and this was lucky. He became a part of a second wave of graffiti artists who came after this first cycle of arrests. It was at this point that he started crafting his persona; experimenting with different pseudonyms such as Robin Banx until settling on his infamous choice.

 

 

Did he feel it was necessary to make an alias because his background did not correspond with that of his contemporaries? It is interesting to consider that maybe graffiti culture is not inherent in Banksy’s life. He said himself that he was scared and intimidated of the area because of stories his father used to tell him, maybe he created a false past in order to fit in.

But does this make him not a legitimate street artist? Does where you came from direct what kind of art you are allowed to do, and anything else is just impersonation or appropriation? An old friend of Banksy was quoted saying “He was never a graffiti artist who sold out, because he was never a graffiti artist to start with” (pg. 36). 

What do you think? Does Banksy lying about his past influence your opinion of him and his artwork in any way? Does it make his artwork any less legitimate, or does it not matter where he came from so long as he has talent? Since Banksy lied about his background does that inherently mean that he believes the answer is yes? 

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Recently, while reading Banksy’s novel “Wall and Piece” I came across the following quote regarding graffiti and advertising: 

“Despite what they say graffiti is not he lowest form of art…There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.

The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit, which makes their opinion worthless…The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to maek us feel inadequate unles we buy their stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you’re never allowed to answer back. Well, they started the fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back” 

(Wall and Piece, pg. 8)

A NYC street artist who goes by the name Poster Boy has been implementing this exact theory. 

A billboard in the city that once read “WTF is alternate side of the street parking anyway?” has been hacked to send another message: 

By simply masking certain letters, the message is clear that graffiti and advertisements might have more in common than meets the eye. 

Is it possible to say that billboards and advertisements are graffiti too, but they just  have someone’s permission to exist? They crowd our visual scene, assault our eyes with concepts (mostly to sell something), and they are not desired by the people who see them…similar to graffiti. 

Advertisements exist because they make advertisers money. Graffiti, in the sense that Banksy and Poster Boy look at it, exists as a way to fight back. Both of these things exist in the public sphere and for the public eye, only to be discerned from one another by the money that exchanges hands in order to pay for a wall that graffiti does not own. 

What do our readers think? Is it a valid argument to say that graffiti is just illegal advertising? Do people have a right to fight against images they didn’t necessarily pay to see?  

Blogging the Book: Chapter One- The Art of Infiltration

Ellsworth-Jones opens his novel by detailing Banksy’s infiltration of several famous art museum galleries and covertly hanging his own artwork up.

These doctored artworks are famous now that they have been altered by the hands of Banksy. He is said to have referred to these infiltrations as ‘cutting out the middle man’ in the world of art and going straight to where he thought his artwork should be hung up. Banksy made the point that if he thought his doctored paintings were worthy of hanging in the Louvre, then he was going to put them there.

Banksy is quoted in this chapter saying “These galleries are just trophy cabinets for a handful of millionaires. The public never has any real say in what art they see.” (pg. 17)

This particular quote struck me; a very select group of people get to decide what the rest of the world sees in terms of fine art. The public, for whom these museums are supposedly intended, do not get much of a say. Banksy makes this sentiment an initiative and hangs his own work in these famous museums, even though most of them only remain hanging for a few hours. 

One instance in particular amused me, when a painting allegedly stayed hanging in a New York gallery for up to 8 days after Banksy placed it. What is amazing to me is that this speaks so much of how masses of people float in and out of museums but really are not taking in what they are seeing. There is no deep thought involved in a space where such intellect and discussion should presumably take place.

It is also important, if not most important, to note that these modified artworks live on a life of their own long after museum security has removed them. The internet has been Banksy’s, as well as other street artist’s, best friend in this regard. Street art is typically temporary, but with the internet it lives on forever in the form of pictures and other media. Banksy himself has an accomplice video tape him put up the guerilla paintings because he realizes that if he doesn’t record the moment then no one will ever see it and his message will be lost forever. 

The internet also gives access to people globally at all times and any day of the week, long past the opening hours of any museum. “In short, to give everyone a chance to feel they share some part of Banksy, even if they are not a millionaire with a Banksy on their sitting–room wall.” (pg. 20)

A lot of street art is temporary for the main reason that it has been put up illegally, including Banksy’s modified painting series. What role does the internet play in this? Would street art be more “pure” if the internet was not used to record it, and the artist would purely be creating the piece for that moment and that moment only instead of being preserved online for infinity? Or is the internet a useful tool for artists to use as a platform in order to speak out? Comment below!

Blogging the Book: Banksy, The Man Behind The Wall

Inspired by our recent blog post regarded the legal/illegal dichotomy of street art, this blog will now feature posts about the novel written by Will Ellsworth-Jones, Banksy: The Man Behind The Wall and will be supplemented by Banksy’s own short work Wall and Piece. 

Stay tuned as we blog the book! 

“The Female Banksy”

Banksy’s name is infamous within in the art community, and is synonymous with street art. However, a new legend is emerging. Her name is Bambi, and she is being exhibited alongside Banksy in a one of a kind art show at the Walton Fine Arts Gallery in London.

Why Bambi and Banksy together? Both artists have similar street art styles that utilize pop icons. And what is perhaps most interesting, both of their identities have remained secret despite their increasing level of fame.

However, this particular art show is more concerned with highlighting the artists’ differences rather than their similarities. It is interesting to note how two artists can create such different art for the same genre. Bambi’s girly and glamorized approach exhibited alongside Banksy’s satirical works will surely showcase her up and coming work with the veteran artist in a fantastic light.

Read the original article at artdaily!