Who is Banksy?
Banksy’s real name is actually Robin Gunningham. He uses a pseudonym in an attempt to maintain his anonymity. Regardless, he has managed to achieve near mythical status. However, in the same vein Banksy has become fairly mainstream and commercial, due to his ever increasing popularity.
To some he is nothing more than an offensive, criminal low life vandal who flaunts the British law and order.
Can his work really claim to be ”art”?
Uncategorically I have to say a resounding - YES!!! In my opinion his art work is “art” on so many multi-faceted levels.
One of the great things about his work is that it attempts to challenge the narrow minded, linear definition of what we believe “art” should be. His work flys in the face of the arts world, and the establishment that surrounds it.
Banksy makes people question their lives, society and culture. After seeing his art work they sit up, stand up, pause for thought……….just think! This is “art” at it’s very best. Instead of just being ornate, beautiful or wacky, Banksy’s art work is powerfully thought provoking. He makes every day people stand, stop, stare and think about the world they actually live in.
“A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one ever told them to”
“Playing it safe will always end in disaster”
“Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little”
Banksy is not only an artist, he is also one of the greatest creative critics of contemporary society. He uses a clever and powerful medium, street art/graffiti to enable him convey his messages on mass, whether this be the streets of London, Brazil or where ever……..
The utter brilliance of Banksy’s work is that it is accessible to you, me, the next person. Whoever might happen to walk past, regardless of class, race, religion, wealth or interest in art. One of the fundamental problems of “art”, and by this I also include literature and the realms of the political world in my definition, they are generally open to only the middle or higher classes, due to opportunities, socialisation and education . Unfortunately the “common man” for a variety of reasons, such as limited education, opportunities and environment rarely have access to “art”. This is where Banksy’s work come into it’s own. Banksy’s work crosses boundaries as it has universal curb appeal. Even better he has a captive audience!
His work has led to a blurring of the lines between high and low culture. By using the medium of street graffiti he is able to get important societal messages out to people, who ordinarily would not visit art galleries, read broad sheets or watch current affairs program. That is the beauty of Banksy. His street art has the potential to educate the uneducated, stimulating thinking on issues such as politics,religion, war and social order. Often the messages his arts work conveys are messages his audience already knows, but I believe choose to ignore. They send out a stark message about the harsh realities of our modern day society, each piece hammers home some hard hitting home truisms. He is a modern day George Orwell.
An anarchist of the 21st century
His work is a paradox. Often very subtle, using satirical humour, and diverse contrasting images, which you would never normally see or put together. Take for instance his art piece depicting the US army helicopters sporting a pretty pink bow around the propeller! A simple touch but yet so effective, and funny on a range of different levels.
He stick two finger up to capitalism. Laughing in the face of the hypocrisy of our society. We need more creative thinkers, like him, who are clever and forward thinking enough to use a ready available medium to access a whole new generation of people. The young are much more likely to listen to someone like Banksy than some high brow arty type who only gets his or her work displayed in the Tate Modern! In this day and age if art is going to have a serious impact ”artists” need to be more creative and alternative in their approach.
“Think from outside the box. Collapse the box
and take a fucking sharp knife to it!”
“Advertising makes people feel inadequate and worthless. Graffiti doesn’t do that. Graffiti doesn’t emotionally blackmail you,graffiti doesn’t make you feel fat and graffiti doesn’t make you want to rush out and buy things - except maybe a high strength cleaning product”
“The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit…
the people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff….
any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours, it belongs to you, its yours to take, rearrange and re use.Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head…. “
“Going through the emotions kills the emotion”
