Banksy exhibition

Gotta say that although I've always hated Banksy's stencils all over Shoreditch I think a lot of that stuff is pretty good. I particularly like the African warriors fending off the shopping trolleys but I'm sure that someone will explain to me why I'm wrong or point out the irony of such a piece being for sale in a gallery for loads of money or something.

Banksy's stuff is just subversive enough to appear fresh and edgy wihout actually having much to say or providing any real food for thought. He has this vague anti-establishment stance which picks on easy targets like Bush and Paris Hilton that no one could really disagree with, y'know: "At least he's having a go..."
There's nothing difficult or unsettling about what he does, it's just....there.

That's pretty much what I've always thought but his latest stunts and - to my surprise - even some of those artworks have made me smile so I don't think it's quite fair to say that there is nothing there at all.
Obviously there is something a bit unpleasant about Brad Pitt and all queuing up to buy a piece of sanctioned subversion from that faux-scuzzy gallery but I do kind of like the pictures.

no, banksy is the best we've got i think. he's the only one doing anything good so why nitpik? its wrong to slag him off. they're well drawn, they're witty, whats not to like?

Where's Woebot? I'm sure he's got some useful criticisms of Banksy...

Another thing, if you look at a lot of what Julian Stallabrass termed "High Art Lite" (YBA stuff influenced by Americans like Jeff Koons and Mike Kelley) For all it's faults, it still plays around a lot with ideas like ambiguity, what is acceptable as art, flipping between meaning nothing whilst trying to convey a big brash image, etc. Banksy's pieces are just very simple symbols with cheap gags attached.
But then again I'm not sure whether he'd even call what he does "art" in the first place.

"Another thing, if you look at a lot of what Julian Stallabrass termed "High Art Lite" (YBA stuff influenced by Americans like Jeff Koons and Mike Kelley) For all it's faults, it still plays around a lot with ideas like ambiguity, what is acceptable as art, flipping between meaning nothing whilst trying to convey a big brash image, etc."

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I think that a lot of that stuff played around with ambiguity simply to disguise the fact that there were no ideas there at all. It's a lot easier to say "ahh, it means what you want it to mean" than it is to actually do something of some meaning. For me a lot of the YBAs realised this and made pretend conceptual art.

Thanks for the link HMGovt.

Much as I thought the Hilton stunt was pretty meh some of this stuff is ok but a lot of it is a bit lame too... IMO!

Still for my money I prefer the totally plastic cloyingly sweet stuff of Koons. I guess these guys share the same attitude to publicity I guess, playing the media game etc.

What was that quote from Nathan Barley? "Stupid people think it’s cool. Smart people think it’s a joke; also cool.”

Man.. Brad Pitt looks like he's been caning it pretty hard...

that barley quote in itself an oft made point.... i agree with swears completely though. i realize an artist's fanbase should not be the determining factor in one's appreciation of his//her work but... all the people i know that gush about banksy are pot heads that think borat is "genius" and ninja tune are "edgy" ... i actually paraphrased swears' statement to them, to which they stared at me , all blank faced and swiftly changed the subject of conversation.

i really like dadaism because it just does away with pretences and makes no bones about it. i'd rather that than nothing dressed up as some grand intellectual statement.


the whole hatinggeorgebushandtheevilusa schtik is getting beyond tiresome aswell. being at sussex uni makes a whole lot worse. "anarchist society" okay. sure.

this would be quite interesting topic unto itself, but. hypothetically, what would the world be like if the USA did not even exist? i'm not sure it would be a better place.. let alone some sort of utopia.

just read in The Grauniad that banksy's latest piece is michael jackson as the wicked witch. could he go for anything less subversive? also has an xmas shop on tottnm crt road open with other "radical" art on display. . ..

lazybones said:

the whole hatinggeorgebushandtheevilusa schtik is getting beyond tiresome aswell. being at sussex uni makes a whole lot worse. "anarchist society" okay. sure.

this would be quite interesting topic unto itself, but. hypothetically, what would the world be like if the USA did not even exist? i'm not sure it would be a better place.. let alone some sort of utopia.

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The problem as i see it re the anti-bush thing [as a mainstream concern] is that its generally uniformed faux-anarchism unforthcoming in any other solution than down with George Bush - as though he is the first American President to operate unfairly or against world opinion. Its ineffectual stance is so pathetic and shallow it manages to dimish the entire process of rebelion into something dismisable as a trendy fad.

Even if Banksy is an expert on the international politics of the past 2000 years, his work plays straight into the hands of the armchair revoltionaries. If someone with his public profile were willing to write some of the uglier facts you hear via Lenin's Tomb or Chomsky [with metre high lettering and in prominent places] around london that might be deserving of more respect. Though at that point he might not be able to shift so many pictures/books.

Would it be unfair to draw parrelels with the BoBono phenomenen in that other thread? Psuedo politics = real publicity.

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/banskyversussomeonewithsense.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

banksy, NIL

Me, NIL

<IMG src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/banskyversussomeonewithsense.jpg>

hmm, how do you do this?



?

lazybones said:

just read in The Grauniad that banksy's latest piece is michael jackson as the wicked witch. could he go for anything less subversive? also has an xmas shop on tottnm crt road open with other "radical" art on display. . ..

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that particular michael jackson piece is a little obvious and tacky isn't it?

the christmas shop thing has been running for a few years now, and is worth going down to if you get a chance. lots of interesting work on display, from a range of people, not just banksy. go with a view to look, rather than a view to buy, and you might be suprised.

tryptych said:

Where's Woebot? I'm sure he's got some useful criticisms of Banksy...

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ha! well hardly.......

banksy grates. i just find his ideas crass, clunky and clumsy - like the portfolio of a media studies advertising graduate.

his trademark stencil layouts are mostly coarse and ugly.

but mainly i object to the way that he's obsessed with believing he has something interesting to say, forcing it down everyone's throats with his fucking wretched graffiti (in not just london ive seen his crap in glasgow and bristol) when he patently has nothing whatsoever worthwhile to contribute but the most childish inanities passed off as wisdom.

WOEBOT said:

banksy grates. i just find his ideas crass, clunky and clumsy

his trademark stencil layouts are mostly coarse and ugly.

but mainly i object to the way that he's obsessed with believing he has something interesting to say, forcing it down everyone's throats with his fucking wretched graffiti (in not just london ive seen his crap in glasgow and bristol) when he patently has nothing whatsoever worthwhile to contribute but the most childish inanities passed off as wisdom.

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not to mention that on a fundamental level Subvertising just reinforces the Advertising world-view, in much the same way that Satanism reinforces the Christian world-view...

leave this stupid game for stupids to play, and the dumb debates for the dummies... surely much better things to do with your time.

WOEBOT said:

forcing it down everyone's throats with his fucking wretched graffiti...

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It would be great to see genuine graf-ers do more political stuff - there's some stunning graf about but it's all quite decorative.

But then again graf, like free parties, is political by it's very existence, is there any need to hammer the point home? Or would it just turn something thrillingly nebulous into something much more clunky and pidgeonhole-able? The politics of graf are extremely local - coded communications, hidden identities, the battles for ownership of spaces and surfaces.

I was really impressed with Nigel Cooke's use of graf that K-Punk wrote about recently (ontological rot, scroll down) - first time I'd come across Cooke. His stuff tears strips off banksy, aesthetically and politically.

That k-punk piece on nigel cooke reminded me of the art of Os Gemeos - sao paulo twins, hes got a similar painting style to them, thin lines, fading colours. Their work is stunning, a little commercial nowadays...but it took them 15 years to get famous and they dont maintain this fame with the pretence of political importance like bansky... they paint the portrait the city, obsessed with the individual characters they observe, morphing them into their own world, looking at their work is like looking through their eyes into their brains, its stunning.

the thing with banksy that pisses me off the most is the way he has achieved this cult status which grants him a certain immunity from the punitive system All graffiti artists suffer from. As he stencils, and urban art is perceived to be more accepted, the police are cracking down harder on vandals. What we are seeing more of on the streets is a fabrication of graffiti, a reality that advertisers create - how many shop fronts/interiors are painted now in this street art style. The commercialisation of urban art is killing the culture of integrity/appreciation which spawned it and at the same time causes police to crack down even more on the kids who go out there to get their name up.

street art is a very elitist scene nowadays.