Banksy in secret exhibition stunt

jolly wailer · Post by **jolly wailer** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:52 pm

^ didn't mean that to sound as assy as it might read

reverend dale · Post by **reverend dale** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:59 pm

I hate banksy for the very reasons charlie brooker said:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... visualarts

Here's a mystery for you. Renegade urban graffiti artist Banksy is clearly a guffhead of massive proportions, yet he's often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why? Because his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots. And apparently that'll do.

Banksy first became famous for his stencilled subversions of pop-culture images; one showed John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson in a famous pose from Pulp Fiction, with their guns replaced by bananas. What did it mean? Something to do with the glamourisation of violence, yeah? Never mind. It looked cool. Most importantly, it was accompanied by the name "BANKSY" in huge letters, so everyone knew who'd done it. This, of course, is the real message behind all of Banksy's work, despite any appearances to the contrary.

Take his political stuff. One featured that Vietnamese girl who had her clothes napalmed off. Ho-hum, a familiar image, you think. I'll just be on my way to my 9 to 5 desk job, mindless drone that I am. Then, with an astonished lurch, you notice sly, subversive genius Banksy has stencilled Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald either side of her.

Wham! The message hits you like a lead bus: America ... um ... war ... er ... Disney ... and stuff. Wow. In an instant, your worldview changes forever. Your eyes are opened. Staggering away, mind blown, you flick v-signs at a Burger King on the way home. Nice one Banksy! You've shown us the truth, yeah?

As if that wasn't irritating enough, Banksy's vague, pseudo-subversive preaching is often accompanied by a downright embarrassing hardnut swagger. His website is full of advice to other would-be graffiti bores, like: "be aware that going on a mission drunk out of your head will result in some truly spectacular artwork and at least one night in the cells". Woah, man - the cells!

He goes on to explain that "real villains" think graffiti is pointless - not because he wants you to agree with them, but because he wants you to know he's mates with a few tough-guy criminal types. Coz Banksy's an anarchalist what don't respect no law, innit?

One of his most imbecilic daubings depicts a monkey wearing a sandwich board with "lying to the police is never wrong" written on it. So presumably Ian Huntley was right then, Banksy? You absolute thundering backside.

Recently, our hero's made headlines by sneaking a dummy dressed in Guantánamo rags into Disneyland (once again fearlessly exposing Mickey Mouse's disgusting war criminal past), and defacing several hundred copies of Paris Hilton's new album (I haven't heard her CD, but I'm willing to bet it's far superior to Blur's godawful Think Tank, a useless bumdrizzle of an album, whose artwork was done by Banksy - presumably he spray-painted it on a brick and hurled it through EMI's window, yeah?).

Right now you can see some of Banksy's life-altering acts of genius for yourself at his LA exhibition Barely Legal (yeah? Yeah!), including a live elephant painted to blend in with some gaudy wallpaper. This apparently represents "the big issues some people choose to ignore" - ie pretty much anything from global poverty to Aids. But not, presumably, the fat-arsed, berk-pleasing rubbishness of Banksy. We're all keeping schtum about that one

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:03 pm

Yeah, Charlton Brooker sonned him with that one. Totally nailed what I'd thought about the guy but couldn't articulate.

limb · Post by **limb** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:07 pm

I think Mr Brooker is right but you can't realy blame someone for saying something that everyone's already said or knows, he's still right even if hasn't got some mind blowing new ideas. I guess it's just like when Pendulum got big in Drum and Bass when you think if that's the best there is at the moment then we're really in trouble.

j-sh · Post by **j-sh** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:28 pm

Yeh Brooker definetely articulated it better than me.
And also im aware of what juxtaposition is, and what effect it's meant to create. my point was that message behind the picture was completely banal
lol

djelements · Post by **djelements** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:36 pm

Reverend Dale wrote:I hate banksy for the very reasons charlie brooker said:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... visualarts

Here's a mystery for you. Renegade urban graffiti artist Banksy is clearly a guffhead of massive proportions, yet he's often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why? Because his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots. And apparently that'll do.

Banksy first became famous for his stencilled subversions of pop-culture images; one showed John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson in a famous pose from Pulp Fiction, with their guns replaced by bananas. What did it mean? Something to do with the glamourisation of violence, yeah? Never mind. It looked cool. Most importantly, it was accompanied by the name "BANKSY" in huge letters, so everyone knew who'd done it. This, of course, is the real message behind all of Banksy's work, despite any appearances to the contrary.

Take his political stuff. One featured that Vietnamese girl who had her clothes napalmed off. Ho-hum, a familiar image, you think. I'll just be on my way to my 9 to 5 desk job, mindless drone that I am. Then, with an astonished lurch, you notice sly, subversive genius Banksy has stencilled Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald either side of her.

Wham! The message hits you like a lead bus: America ... um ... war ... er ... Disney ... and stuff. Wow. In an instant, your worldview changes forever. Your eyes are opened. Staggering away, mind blown, you flick v-signs at a Burger King on the way home. Nice one Banksy! You've shown us the truth, yeah?

As if that wasn't irritating enough, Banksy's vague, pseudo-subversive preaching is often accompanied by a downright embarrassing hardnut swagger. His website is full of advice to other would-be graffiti bores, like: "be aware that going on a mission drunk out of your head will result in some truly spectacular artwork and at least one night in the cells". Woah, man - the cells!

He goes on to explain that "real villains" think graffiti is pointless - not because he wants you to agree with them, but because he wants you to know he's mates with a few tough-guy criminal types. Coz Banksy's an anarchalist what don't respect no law, innit?

One of his most imbecilic daubings depicts a monkey wearing a sandwich board with "lying to the police is never wrong" written on it. So presumably Ian Huntley was right then, Banksy? You absolute thundering backside.

Recently, our hero's made headlines by sneaking a dummy dressed in Guantánamo rags into Disneyland (once again fearlessly exposing Mickey Mouse's disgusting war criminal past), and defacing several hundred copies of Paris Hilton's new album (I haven't heard her CD, but I'm willing to bet it's far superior to Blur's godawful Think Tank, a useless bumdrizzle of an album, whose artwork was done by Banksy - presumably he spray-painted it on a brick and hurled it through EMI's window, yeah?).

Right now you can see some of Banksy's life-altering acts of genius for yourself at his LA exhibition Barely Legal (yeah? Yeah!), including a live elephant painted to blend in with some gaudy wallpaper. This apparently represents "the big issues some people choose to ignore" - ie pretty much anything from global poverty to Aids. But not, presumably, the fat-arsed, berk-pleasing rubbishness of Banksy. We're all keeping schtum about that one

Yeah, that's about it.

jolly wailer · Post by **jolly wailer** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:42 pm

edit: nvrmind

a of dkr · Post by **a of dkr** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:58 pm

well..first of all to be fair i might not really know what he's all about cuz i've just browsed once through a lot of his stuff + the occasional stumbling upon
i'm certainly no big fan, but :
the way i see the world today, i don't find "capitalism is shit, ppl are dying and suffering while others are happily paying interest 30 months for their new couch" as a banal thing.
i agree it should be obvious by now, but unfortunately it's not.
and unfortunately, there are a lot of 9-5 drones struggling just to have the coolest trainers this season.
it might not do any good, because there are some ppl that will only be able to say "yeah, bansky is so cool. i'm so totally like against capitalism" and nothing else, but there might be some other ones that actually got something significant out of it.

i feel that artists who are deliberatly cutting edge without any real substance to their work are far worse than one that uses common sense, simple associations and juxtapositions with a touch of funny.

jolly wailer · Post by **jolly wailer** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:07 pm

well said.

r3pulse · Post by **r3pulse** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:11 pm

At least his shit actually makes the place look good and adds character to the place unlike 90% of graf. 'Hate' seems a too strong word

jsilver · Post by **jsilver** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:54 pm

Fuck banksy and fuck dubstep i quit

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:56 pm

jsilver · Post by **jsilver** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:01 pm

..sike

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:02 pm

j-sh · Post by **j-sh** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:17 pm

a of dkr wrote:well..first of all to be fair i might not really know what he's all about cuz i've just browsed once through a lot of his stuff + the occasional stumbling upon
i'm certainly no big fan, but :
the way i see the world today, i don't find "capitalism is shit, ppl are dying and suffering while others are happily paying interest 30 months for their new couch" as a banal thing.
i agree it should be obvious by now, but unfortunately it's not.
and unfortunately, there are a lot of 9-5 drones struggling just to have the coolest trainers this season.
it might not do any good, because there are some ppl that will only be able to say "yeah, bansky is so cool. i'm so totally like against capitalism" and nothing else, but there might be some other ones that actually got something significant out of it.

i feel that artists who are deliberatly cutting edge without any real substance to their work are far worse than one that uses common sense, simple associations and juxtapositions with a touch of funny.

Yeh that's true I can definetely see how banksy's work kind of spread that message to people
I guess my anger ought to be directed at the fact that this message needs artists like banksy to communicate it, and thats its not, as you say, completely obvious to people

i do still think that in art its a fairly banal theme. But I suppose, like you say, the more these ideologies imbed themselves in pop culture, even if that is through artists like banksy, the better as some people may actually take action against it.

didn't mean to come off as a bit of a dick, just banksy's whole persona kind of pisses me off - the whole idea that he capitalises on anti-capitalism.
But i do agree that ultimately in the end that may have a postive impact.

djelements · Post by **djelements** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:19 pm

J-sh wrote: banksy's whole persona kind of pisses me off - the whole idea that he capitalises on anti-capitalism.

That's it. RIGHT THERE.

a of dkr · Post by **a of dkr** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:44 pm

DJelements wrote:
J-sh wrote: banksy's whole persona kind of pisses me off - the whole idea that he capitalises on anti-capitalism.
That's it. RIGHT THERE.

that's a pretty good point indeed.

plus, my stand on this is deff influenced by the fact that lately i'm kinda pissed off at the kind of artists i mentioned earlier, the kind that put a lot of effort into being impossible to understand many of them prolly don't have anything worth understanding to show us in the first place. the most annoying part for me is the fact that a lot of ppl nod in front of tis kind of art and act "that's so cool" when they clearly don't understand a fucking thing either, it's just fashionable to be into obscure abstract meaningless crazy shit.

so that's why i'm so touchy about ppl attacking art because it's too easy to understand.
but i feel ur issues with banksy.
edit: bit of redundant post... sorry.

mawltea · Post by **mawltea** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:10 pm

I thought they wrote about that on woostercollective about half a year ago? Maybe not. I'm no huge fan of banksy either, he's got some cool ideas, but it's getting a little bit too much now, and the style is getting boring. It seems as though "street art" is synonymous with "banksy" to the general public these days. You've got to admit though, pretty impressive of him to be able to make so much money out of it.

And for all we know, he might as well support some charity or good cause with the money he makes.

a of dkr · Post by **a of dkr** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:37 pm

^^ props for the mitch hedberg sig
i'd add RIP george carlin

_boring · Post by **_boring** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:45 pm

man. fuckin haters up in here.

capitalizing on capitalism??

Banksy in secret exhibition stunt

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