QuoteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banksy is a well-known pseudo-anonymous English graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world. Banksy's work was borne out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.
Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries.
Check out this video of his Los Angeles 2006 show. Um, dont be shocked at the crazy similarity of many of the wall figures to the local 'urbismus' work.....
http://www.youtube.com/v/XL22yhTm0Xs
I'm surprised more people haven't picked up on this post. This guy is amazing. The videos you guys posted are definitely worth checking out. Have you been to his website? A lot of great material there. I had to laugh though - I watched these last night and was in awe of the guy's work and was thinking how Jax could benefit from art like that and now this morning the TU has a story on some graf artists getting arrested.
urbismus lifted Banksy's stuff, no doubt about it. Banksy does nice work. It is political and with a bigger message than "look at me" even though there's that factor too in his work. urbismus is throwing a graffiti tantrum about vacant buildings not being rehabbed according to their manifesto. I have been told it's actually a reaction to the buildings not being sold to them for a good price my sources say. I guess that's something but still weak sauce in the larger scheme of relative art. Makes me sad that Jax struggles to even develop its own graffiti, that's all a decade behind the times as well? Those dudes who got busted were thinking they were artists and showing off their work, any dummy could see that they weren't out there marking territory like dogs pissing on walls. Well, wait, that is exactly what graffiti artists do. Not for anything violent or drug sales related though. Just for the kick of having everyone see their special snowflake markings. That pot was personal stash. Guessing that the arrest was for vandalism, meaning damage to the buildings, rather than for gang related activity, so in the end what they are calling it doesn't really matter as far as the charges go.
Sure I guess the personal is politic and all. I have been known in the past to slap some coolass stickers on cars that were parked illegally in bike lanes. I think of it as performance art. the stickers were cool they were art too. but really that was a form of retribution and vandalism on my part. I don't regret it, but I didn't kid myself even at the time that my form of expression wasn't 90% vandalism and 10% art. the graffiti/art thing isn't binary and it burns me to hear street artists bitch and moan that what they do is art and not vandalism. It is both.
Take responsibility for your actions. calling yourself an artists doesn't make you special and exempt from the rules that apply to lowly taggers or whoever else you deem unworthy of making marks on things that don't belong to you or that you haven't got permission to deface. Go ahead and break the rules if you want but then accept the risks that come with it and accept that you are doing something illegal and might get prosecuted. If you decide the benefits outweigh the risks then good for you. But be willing to take your licks and suffer for your art if that is the route you choose. If you are going to risk big, the image statement should be worth it. whether it is is up to the artist and the audience to decide.
I agree. I think this city is starving for art like that.
Agreed. I wish more artists would start papering and painting over the blight. Leave the walls that aren't rotting alone, but a fresh coat of paint and some nice paper always brightens up a space. Here is a tip- the more people doing this, the harder it is to control hence the "one broken window" theory. Street bombers, use this to your advantage it'll have the cops playing "whack a mole".
Yea, me too. If I wasn't such an old timer (and actually had the talent) I would give it a shot. When I drove an ambulance around the city I would often tell my partners that this place is ripe for some good graf/mural art. There's so many places to work with. I'm really surprised there aren't more crews - or any for that matter. I'm sure there would be a huge moral outcry but like I said the city is in dire need of some fresh talent. Art makes a city interesting.
Wondering if you heard about this this?
Graffiti artist Banksy unmasked ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html)
thanks brokenforum. i saw that yesterday too.
Don't know how much of an effect it will have on his work. granted the larger part of what banksy does has as much to do with political or social commentary as it does with a particular artform like stenciling or papering so having his identity secret has let him pull stunts that he would not have been able to otherwise if his face was well known. I think that is really the key to the secrecy and why people have protected him. not a cynic enough to think he's been playing the up the mystery in order to build up a persona that he would not otherwise have ie to be more famous. look at his work, his reasons for making it seem like they come from a purer spot than most of the knock-off artists trying to cash in on what he started. i think people around him respect that part of his vision and have been protective of his identity because of that.
unlike jeff aerosal for example. he does not need to be so secretive because he is in it largely for the fame and cash:
http://jefaerosol.free.fr/JefAerosol_photos_street.htm
both aerosal and banksy owe heaps of hat tips to the original, Blek Le Rat. among other things check the origination of the rat motif and rat tracks as well as almost life size figures in 3 color seperations. banksy has acknowledged this many times and pays respect. Blek le Rat is open about his identity and always has been but still manages to get the work done. genuflect to Le RAT!!!:
http://bleklerat.free.fr/stencil%20graffiti.html
That's a bummer he got outed. I have been a fan of his since I saw him in some book a few years ago. The art is awesome and the messages are even better.