Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Banksy




For a while now, I have known about a British graffiti artist who simply goes by the name of "Banksy". The art to which he presents is not only a marvel to the eye, but as well, holds strong purpose. His street art varies from political, to inspiring, to just plain comical.
What is actually known of Banksy is very little, due to the fact he wishes to remain unknown.
"His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art that encompass topics such as politics, culture, and ethics" (Wikipedia).

Here's the link to his website, have you heard of him before? What do you think of his work?


http://www.banksy.co.uk/


"Banksy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 17 Mar 2008, 00:13 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 19 Mar 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Banksy&oldid=198747507>.

4 comments:

kayla s said...

woah bear! first of all, props to introducing this to me. beyond all of the questions i will follow this up with, his work is incredible in and of itself. but...

i think there's something to be said about the fact that despite the fact that he's being subversive and clearly making a statement, that people are willing to put a price on his work and buy it. i was talking about banksy to my friend izzy, and he said that he went to england in september and bought a "banksy" t-shirt from a flea market. in the wiki article, there's countless examples of people eating his work up and paying insane amounts for the work. he even calls them out on it.

i think his work is beautiful and meaningful and with its initial motives is an incredibly powerful form of resistance. i'm just thinking about what the meaning of this resistance becomes when it's become some exuberant commodity to be bought and sold. if people are buying something that is meant to have a message, is free to begin with, they are just buying the rebellion attached to it. so does that completely taint the original intention of the graffiti?

- kayla

I. Reilly said...

here's a short article on banksy in the latest issue of adbusters:

http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/76/Banksy_Bombs.html

i.

Dave said...

I'm going to head over to ed video myself next week to give them my email, for their mailing list. If you want I'll give them an email address for you too, if you tell me what it is.

Let me know at thebeatts[at]gmail[dot]com, or the same thing with hotmail for msn.

-dave

kayla s said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=559547&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490