Sunday 28 March 2010

Banksy and congratulations


I've been meaning to blog on Banksy for ages. Apologies to British readers - Banksy being well known here - if I start with a bit of basic stuff. Banksy started as a graffiti artist. He works in stencils. Reputedly he started to use stencils because he realised how much quicker he could work using them when hiding from the police under a train. The number was stencilled on the chassis. An inspirational moment followed. His identity has not been definitively established. It is known that he comes from the Bristol area. He was reputedly born in 1974. There seems to be a Mrs Banksy. A name has been attached to this shadowy identity. Let's not spoil the fun by digging too deep. This one is rather rude, isn't it?

Inevitably, he uses surrealist images such as this one of an ATM attacking a girl...


And one of his finest moments was working into the Louvre with his copy of the Mona Lisa, subverted by a smiley face. He hung it up. Unsurprisingly, it was rapidly removed. 'To actually ... go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up'. I can relate to that.


In fact he seems very fond of Mona Lisa; she keeps recurring as a theme.



In another of his finest moments - well quite extend period of time - he went to the West Bank and set about subverting the apartheid wall (West Banksy the episode was called). He met with a distinctly mixed reaction. The Israeli Occupation Forces threatened him verbally and pointed their guns at him on a number of occasions and an old Palestinian told him after telling him that he had made the wall beautiful 'We don't want it (the wall) to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home.'

I do like this one from Bethlehem of the young girl frisking the soldier.


I think what I like about Banksy - well apart from his glorious subversion of all sorts of things is his English eccentricity plus his uncommercial approach to his work. It's not that he hasn't made any money out of his art. He has. However he could have made a vast amount more if he had taken a hard nosed commecial approach. He didn't and kudos to him. I will leave the last words to him.

Well maybe not quite the last words. Two good things happened today. Firstly, John Hirst aka jailhouselawyer has got engaged. Congratulations! Secondly,
Lawminx
is back blogging after all sort of health problems. Welcome back your minxitude! You've been sorely missed!

12 comments:

Mrs. Hall said...

I love this guy's work!*

Amazing stuff, so surprising and whimsical. Yet all charged politically at the same time.

Crazy and contained.

Awesome!

I wonder though, is this one man? Or a team? I don't think the story will ever straight. Which adds to the awesomeness I say!

savannah said...

i adore banksy! xoxoxox

JoJo said...

I'm a big fan of guerrilla art!

Verdant Earl said...

I've seen some of his stuff before and it is amazing.

KAZ said...

Yeah - I love Banksy.
Didn't know about the train though.

Petit fleur said...

Wow. He sounds like something straight out of the head of Tom Robbins! How spectacular that there are still those kinds of crafty creative geniuses still willing to take risks to deliver their message!

Congrats to JHL~ and to Lawminx. And also, great handles, both of them.
Peace,
pf PS Word verification: "pooty" POOTY? really? wow.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

The man's a ruddy bloody genius!

Momma Moose Diaries said...

I am desperate too see the new Banksy film. I must watch it soon, ver soon. He is amazing at what he does that's for sure.

hey White Rabbit!
It is true we do both own un-controlable faces and an in-ability to spell. (That's a personal fault. I'm unsure as to whether Chantelle shares this!) It was no problem visitng your blog. Infact I enjoyed it. I believe it to be a good blog you got going on!
I am glad you cinsider my blog fun.
Thank you bud

Jessica

Minx said...

I simply ADORE Banksy - I belong to a group that regularly petitions him in the hopes that he'll come along and do something WONDERFUL to the side of my rather boring house!
Have you checked his websiste?

www.banksy.co.uk

cedar chest said...

These are amazing stuff yet very alarming. I can't imagine that they are expressing their minds and thoughts through this that not everyone appreciates.

white rabbit said...

Thanks to all for comments - I may put up some more Banksy stuff soon. It will make a change from dreadful album covers! ;)

Welcome to Jessica and cedar chest (ummm..... nice chests!)

And welcome back Minx!

Sarcastic Bastard said...

I like Banksy's work. Pretty damn cool.

Hope all is well in legal land.

Love,

SB