Art: Banksy and Street Art
Sep. 29th, 2007 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baleanopteraSo yesterday it was all about Romanticism and savage nature - therefore I found it fitting to turn to post-modernism and a very clear urban setting.
I have a bit of a thing for Street Art, and a rather large crush on the images of the artist Banksy.
No one really knows who Banksy is, but it is possible that his name is Robert Banks, and that he was born near Bristol UK in 1974. But since Banksy himself and the people close to him are very silent about these things nobody knows for sure.
Guard
His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.
The Jungel book
There are several things I like about Street Art. A main thing is it's pop-cultural references. Not only do I like the cheekyness of using Star Wars or Disney figures in images like these, but I also LOVE how the pop-cultural references makes the images that more accessible. In opposition to a lot of modern art you don't need vast amounts of art knowledge to get the point of the images. The symbols and references in the pictures are instead taken from everyday life and thereby extremely accessible. It's art with a point and a rather sharp satirical edge - and yet it never gives the viewer the feeling he/she is dumb and clueless.
I am your father!
Another thing I love is how the art is out on the streets and in public spaces. It is not tucked away in a gallery, only watched by a small group of specialists. Again this helps make the art more accessible.
Police Search, Glastonbury
Being out in the urban landscape also allows for rather interesting, and sometimes disturbing, interaction between urban life and the images. IMO this only heightens the effect of the images.
Maid sweeping
Working with stencils allows Banksy to replicate his images rather easily, and this again allows the images to appear on different location. Each location adding to the image...
...and expanding it. The multiplication process is also interesting since the idea of originality is central in the art world. None of Banksy's works can be said to be the original and thereby a whole classification apparatus becomes meaningless. Yet most people within the art world would be hard pressed to that claim Banksy's works are not art, and the result is a conclusion that art must be more than originality and single works of greatness.
True, Andy Warhol has challenged this notion before - but just because one person has made a good argument, doesn't mean the argument shouldn't be repeated.
Altered Paris Hilton Promotion Poster
I also have an evil and mean side, and therefore I love the fact that Banksy is often rude.
Queen Victoria
Um...I have no words for this really. Go Queen Vic?
Soldiers in the dark
And sometimes he is rude and extremely political. I like that as well.
Petrol head
And sometimes all of this is mixed with a surreal sense of humour - which I love.
I have a bit of a thing for Street Art, and a rather large crush on the images of the artist Banksy.
No one really knows who Banksy is, but it is possible that his name is Robert Banks, and that he was born near Bristol UK in 1974. But since Banksy himself and the people close to him are very silent about these things nobody knows for sure.
Guard
His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.
The Jungel book
There are several things I like about Street Art. A main thing is it's pop-cultural references. Not only do I like the cheekyness of using Star Wars or Disney figures in images like these, but I also LOVE how the pop-cultural references makes the images that more accessible. In opposition to a lot of modern art you don't need vast amounts of art knowledge to get the point of the images. The symbols and references in the pictures are instead taken from everyday life and thereby extremely accessible. It's art with a point and a rather sharp satirical edge - and yet it never gives the viewer the feeling he/she is dumb and clueless.
I am your father!
Another thing I love is how the art is out on the streets and in public spaces. It is not tucked away in a gallery, only watched by a small group of specialists. Again this helps make the art more accessible.
Police Search, Glastonbury
Being out in the urban landscape also allows for rather interesting, and sometimes disturbing, interaction between urban life and the images. IMO this only heightens the effect of the images.
Maid sweeping
Working with stencils allows Banksy to replicate his images rather easily, and this again allows the images to appear on different location. Each location adding to the image...
...and expanding it. The multiplication process is also interesting since the idea of originality is central in the art world. None of Banksy's works can be said to be the original and thereby a whole classification apparatus becomes meaningless. Yet most people within the art world would be hard pressed to that claim Banksy's works are not art, and the result is a conclusion that art must be more than originality and single works of greatness.
True, Andy Warhol has challenged this notion before - but just because one person has made a good argument, doesn't mean the argument shouldn't be repeated.
Altered Paris Hilton Promotion Poster
I also have an evil and mean side, and therefore I love the fact that Banksy is often rude.
Queen Victoria
Um...I have no words for this really. Go Queen Vic?
Soldiers in the dark
And sometimes he is rude and extremely political. I like that as well.
Petrol head
And sometimes all of this is mixed with a surreal sense of humour - which I love.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-29 08:01 pm (UTC)Tying in to the political thing, wasn't some of his art used in the Children of Men movie? I recall a piece of wall, graffiti'd in the above style, being guarded a soldier in the Battersea Power Station sequence.
Incidentally, there's a article on how they did the visual fx for that sequence and others here (http://www.fxguide.com/article390.html).
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Date: 2007-10-02 11:24 am (UTC)And the Queen Vic one is marvellous. I really like the Maid too, but the best about that stencil is that he is quite prolific with using it - and so it appears in all manner of contexts. It's quite brilliant.
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Date: 2007-10-02 10:56 am (UTC)And great to hear you liked the pictures. I wanted to find something other than the staple rats and monkeys. While I love the little grafitti-rats I think his larger art is better.
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Date: 2007-10-05 10:13 pm (UTC)This giant ferret/rat (http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2006/10/14/banksy-in-liverpool.aspx) in Liverpool, UK is very good. A bigger picture would be nice...
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Date: 2007-10-05 10:35 pm (UTC)Scroll down (http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2717). It's huge!
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Date: 2007-10-08 03:23 pm (UTC)Btw - in one of his books Banksy tells an anecdote about his use of rats. A friend had commented on how "it was SO clever - as rat clearly was an acronym for art."
Banksy said he was a bit taken back by this, as the thought hadn't crossed his mind - but he felt it would be stupid and a bit rude to say so. Instead he decided to play along, and said: "oh yes, yes - caught that did you?"
I just love what that says about the un-intentional and subconscious in the creation of art.