Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Banksy in the South

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Banksy in the South

    Seems that Banksy has been going around the South--a lot of pieces in New Orleans, and one in Birmingham, AL.

    There's a Flickr group for the NOLA ones, which are okay, but the Birmingham one...goddamn. It's the only one seen so far, at an abandoned gas station.


    #2
    Banksy in the South

    What a vapid twat.

    Comment


      #3
      Banksy in the South

      The flickr series contain some gems - a mix of Magritte like surrealism and humour

      Comment


        #4
        Banksy in the South

        What don't you like about it?

        Comment


          #5
          Banksy in the South

          You are going to have to back that one up, Coxtin.

          I am, by no means, saying that he is on the money every time but I would like to know what your objections to what he is doing.

          Comment


            #6
            Banksy in the South

            Inca too: can you enlarge on your feelings about the lynched Klansman one?

            Comment


              #7
              Banksy in the South

              Why do you assume he was lynched?

              Comment


                #8
                Banksy in the South

                Because that seems to be the most likely satiric intent: the biter bit and so on.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Banksy in the South

                  He's got some balls, has Banksy. It's good to see him still doing this sort of work and not disappearing completely into the world of limited-edition prints and commissioned pieces for celebs.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Banksy in the South

                    That twat from the Graun who wrote this is at it again. Did Banksy fuck his dad or something?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Banksy in the South

                      The first Banksy I saw (on my Facebook) was the Abe Lincoln pushing a grocery cart on that green building off of I-10. I was like "wow, the graffiti artists here are some of the most creative and incredible I've ever seen ! I wonder what they'd think in NYC or London."

                      The funny bit about New Orleans was Banksy's battle against the Gray Ghost. The Grey Ghost was a guy who since 1997 has used grey paint - no matter what color the wall was - to paint over graffiti. So guess who started painting grey paint over Banksy's work (since it was "graffiti,") then guess who started using that gray paint as a canvas/and/or/riff for his work...





                      The funny part is the Grey Ghost recently got busted...for graffiti. He painted over a mural that was commissioned, and now must get the permission of the building owner before he paints over it:

                      Gray Ghost busted for mural coverup
                      by Doug MacCash, The Times-Picayune
                      Friday October 24, 2008, 10:46 PM

                      The Gray Ghost finally went too far.

                      Fred Radtke, who has fought a zealous battle against graffiti in the Crescent City since 1997, was issued a summons for criminal damage to property Thursday night, according to New Orleans Police Department spokesman Bob Young, after Radtke and fellow activists painted over a mural that had been placed on a wall with the property owners' permission.

                      Police initially reported Thursday evening that an unnamed person had been detained and released without charge in the incident.

                      Radtke, known as the Gray Ghost for the color of paint he uses, was arrested Wednesday afternoon by Military Police as he and anti-graffiti activists slathered a thick layer of gray paint over a newly finished mural near the corner of Burgundy and Press streets.

                      Though the spray-painted mural shared some characteristics of renegade graffiti, there was an important distinction: The artists had received permission from the property owner before painting it.

                      Radtke did not consult with the owners of Southern Coating and Waterproofing, where the mural is located, before he and anti-graffiti volunteers began the blotting, the owners confirmed Thursday. A passerby who said he was horrified at the destruction of the carefully composed mural notified the owners and called the police.

                      According to witnesses, the MPs scolded Radtke and took him away in a patrol car. However, once he arrived at the police station, he was released without being booked. Later Thursday night, Maj. Bernedine Kelly, commander of NOPD's 5th District, reviewed the incident and issued a summons to Mr. Radtke, police said.

                      Radtke and his nonprofit organization, Operation: Clean Sweep, have long been lauded by police and politicians for ridding the streets of graffiti tagging. He has been vilified by street art fans, who consider him an enemy of creativity.

                      If convicted, Radtke faces a fine of $100 to $500 and up to 90 days in jail, police said. He also may be ordered to pay restitution.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Banksy in the South

                        These are up all over the city as a rebuke to Fred the Grey Ghost:


                        It's from Nola Rising, which "commissioned" or asked for Banksy to come here.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Banksy in the South

                          Your man's case isn't helped by his face:



                          I pretty much think Banksy's a vacuous tit, but a couple of the non-graffiti things in his book are pretty good. The rest of it seems less risky, and less thought-provoking, than Corpsy writing "Kyle is Gaye" on the bus stop in my home village.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Banksy in the South

                            A friend of a friend is an artist in England. He did this, called "Too Many Banksys"



                            http://www.mclevey.com/2009/03/2-many-banksys.html

                            JV--that Gray Ghost guy sounds insane. Even if some toy just put up a weak tag, I'd rather see that than some gray splotch on a wall that's there to "combat" graffiti.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Banksy in the South

                              Weirdly, I've just moved into a room in a shared house which was previously the lair of a British "artist" called [insert generic English surname here]ie". He's not well known, as far as I can tell, but most of his graf-indebted pieces were the based on thrice-chewed puns around hip hop turns of phrases.

                              Dirty bastard, he was: I've been scrubbing the walls clean for a week, and still the dust and grime keep fighting back. Scribbled pictures of nobs all over the bathroom wall as well, the scuzzy fucksucker.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Banksy in the South

                                I think you can make a decent case that Banksy — on his best days — is part of a British tradition of visual satirical social commentary that runs through Hogarth, Gillray and Rowlandson and up to the Hockney the Younger.

                                But that's not the only reason he's important.

                                He's important because a lot of people, who wouldn't ordinarily do so, get to see challenging images before they're mediated by tits like Jonathan Jones. They're allowed to have have their own affective responses without him and his ilk getting in the way.

                                He's also important because, to this point, he's done an end-run around the gallery system. Other graffiti artists — Basquiat and Keith Haring for example — left the street to play the official culture game. Banksy hasn't done that, he understands his grafitti work depends on its exterior urban context — his exhibition stuff is quite different — moved indoors both the wall and the work would be diminished.

                                Finally, he's important because he's playing an interesting game of pseudonymity. He's famous yet we (kinda) don't know who he is. He says this is necessary to keep the law off his back but also, and more importantly, it's to focus attention on the work rather than himself. You can be cynical and see this as an elaborate but effective means of drawing attention while simultaneously maintaining street cred. However it also presents a sorely needed alternative to the 'Charles Saatchi discovers the sexiest graduating art-student and markets him/her into the next Damien Hirst' approach. The art biz sorely needs a dose of anonymity, something unlike some of the other arts it's really never had, or until recently, needed. We need to start looking at pictures again instead of reading about people who make them. Banksy moves this endeavour forward a little bit.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Banksy in the South

                                  One of his pieces here in Bristol (his hometown, for those who aren't already aware) was vandalised a week or two ago, apparently. I know the piece in question but I don't go to that bit of town very often so I've not seen it since this happened.

                                  A friend of mine, a DJ and music producer and artist, knows Banksy and has a small stencilled piece by him on the wall outside his art studio in London.

                                  That is all.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Banksy in the South

                                    See, I completely agree with Amor's points about anonymity and pushing the attention onto the work rather than the artist; that's terrifically important right now. But, with Banksy, what's left? What do you get from his work? A little visual pun in a context which isn't really what it's perceived to be (ie, most of his stuff has been stencilled onto walls in the art zones of north London and Bristol).

                                    I think it's "important" in the same way Oasis are "important": it's kind of the kind of thing we did well in Britain or the US back in the day, when we had a point; but that's about it. YBAs continued, more or less.

                                    I stand to be corrected on all of this, I hope it goes without saying; it's not as if I know what I'm talking about, I just don't think [Geoffrey De La Touche Farquhar De] Banksy's up to much.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Banksy in the South

                                      I don't know, that Abe Lincoln as Homeless Guy shook me to the core.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Banksy in the South

                                        LL - I'm not so sure about London (my mate's studio, which is in Docklands, aside, I've not seen anything I recognise as his in London, mainly through not having looked), but he certainly doesn't confine himself to Bristol's 'art zone', wherever that is. His stuff's all over the bloody place there.

                                        I'm not his biggest fan, by the way - I quite like him but at the same time there are far better graffiti artists in Bristol, if 'better' can be taken to mean 'I like them more'. I couldn't tell you who any of them actually are, though - I could just, if you were to visit Bristol and I was showing you round, say 'there's a bit of street art I really like round this next corner'.

                                        I think the point with Banksy is he's got to the point where people know who he is (obviously very few people actually literally know who he is, but you know what I mean). Whether he wanted to get there or not is another matter - that previous sentence initially read 'managed to get to the point...' until I realised that might not really have been his intention.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Banksy in the South

                                          Sneaking a hooded Guantanamo Bay prisoner into Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland was amazing, put painting that elephant to match the wallpaper of the exhibit he had in LA and keeping it inside a warehouse all day long pissed me off.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Banksy in the South

                                            But, with Banksy, what's left? What do you get from his work?

                                            At worst a smile, at best a provocative idea. Some of my favourite things are not the elaborate stencil pieces but the very quick throw-ups — I love the two grimacing mailboxes leaning over on each other, a photo of it was on his home page for a while. I also like his 3D stuff, the staggered traffic cones for example. Very little graffiti is consistently witty but his is. Very few artists, graffiti or gallery, play with trompe l'oeil effects as skillfully as he does either.

                                            There are also issues grafitti artists have that others don't. Their work is pretty much uneditable for one. David Hockney can come downstairs in the morning look at yesterday's work, wonder "what the f**k was I doing" and throw it in the garbage. Banksy can't do that, yesterday's work is on a wall somewhere with dozens of people walking past. He, and we, have to live with a high crap-to-great ratio it's the nature of the form.

                                            Another factor is graffiti culture itself, which, so far as I know, Banksy still considers himself very much a part of. It's highly judgemental and works are valued based on their difficulty of execution as much as quality. So, though they took a few seconds to do, the mailboxes with faces on a busy NY street-corner have a higher 'risk' factor than the art-zone pieces. This may be inconsequential to a viewer but it matters to Banksy, and helps explain his choices of image and environment.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Banksy in the South

                                              Great thread, I've especially liked AdeC's stuff, whether or not Ive always agreed with ti.

                                              I don't have a picture, and I don't know whether it's his or not, but around the corner from my place in Leeds is a rather wonderful banksy-style portrait of Robert Mugabe in Che Guevara style, with a halo over his head.

                                              And while we're (sort of) on the subject of leeds-based conceptual graffiti, have we done Moose yet? My considered opinion is that he's a bloody genius. Most every artist I've explained it to concurs.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Banksy in the South

                                                My brief thoughts on Banksy, from a couple of conversation on Crooked Timber. I stand by the comments.
                                                What I like about Banksy, apart from the wit, which even I admit isn’t particularly deep, is the way he sets his pieces in context. It isn’t just clever-clever grafitti plastered on a wall. It incorporates the medium and surroundings to make its point. This [people saluting a lamppost flagpole with a Tesco bag instead of a flag]is a perfect example.

                                                ...

                                                I wouldn’t call (most of) Banksy’s work great art, but I really like it. It’s more witty than particularly insightful or meaningful, but then my taste tends to lean that way

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Banksy in the South

                                                  How is a stencil painting of a little girl letting go of a balloon shaped like a heart any different from a black and white photograph of a topless, muscular man holding a baby?

                                                  How is a stencil painting of a demonstrator about to throw a bunch of flowers any different from the inner gatefold art of Music For The Jilted Generation?

                                                  I don't really care about Banksy and I don't really care for that Jones guy but his point about the grafitti guy not being an artist is a compelling one.

                                                  (And those little tags that say 'Don't remove me - I'm a Banksy' are just nauseating. Why not remove it? So our generation aren't deprived of seeing its equivalent of the Athena poster of a baby with spaghetti on its head?)

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X