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1 Bre Empey Artist Research Paper 10/10/13 Period 1 The Banksy Effect Banksy is a street artist in Great Britain

that leaves graffiti artworks in public places anonymously. He has set himself apart from other street graffiti artists with his unique use of stenciling in his artwork, which also includes bold and satirical statements about war, politics and governments, capitalism, poverty, and cultural influences. The overall message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom,(WebUrbanist). Banksy is a genius at taking art and mixing in ideas from popular culture. His pieces are not high art or popular art, but it is an art for the mass(BBC). He takes common known things in today's world such as animals, policemen, soldiers, children, gas masks, baby strollers, and even security cameras, and somehow turns them into works of art that are creatively breath taking in scenery and substance; and that also make a strong statement about politics or societies in general. The creative use of ordinary objects in his artwork never seems to spoil his meaning and style. The other interesting thing about Banksy is no one knows his true identity, which he has been careful not to disclose, even though many of his pieces of art are now selling in many art auctions for several hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of the reasons Banksy stays anonymous is probably because his work has been identified as vandalism on several occasions, this would have landed him in

2 jail if he had ever been caught. A representative from Keep Britain Tidy said, We believe that Banksy's street art is a crime and that he is setting a negative example for other would-be graffiti artists. Banksy's favorite mediums just happen to be public places like walls, streets, office buildings, bridges, and even a few houses. He always asks for permission however from private property owners, prior to painting his masterpieces on their property. Banksy has often sneaked his own work into many art museums such as the British Museum. His work has been praised around the world by numerous people and is actively sold in art auctions. Banksy was probably born around 1974 in Bristol England, even at a young age, it is reported that Banksy was extremely talented at art. Over the years it has been speculated that Banksy is one Robert Gunningham, who seems to be around the areas where Banksy's work starts popping up on walls and buildings. In May 2009, the Mail on Sunday paper once again speculated about Gunningham being the illusive Banksy after a self-portrait of a rat holding a sign with a face of man that looked a lot like Gunningham, appeared on a wall in London. As a young man, Banksy got involved first with the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980's. He was then influenced by the stencil work of Blek le Rat in Paris, and the members of the anarcho-punk band Crass, which did a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970's and early 1980's. He was then inspired by local Bristol underground artists in the 1990's such as Nick Walker, Inkie and 3D. Banksy himself says that he was mostly inspired by 3D, a

3 graffiti artist who later became a founding member of an underground street artist's group. Banksy's art inspirations also come from his anti-government view points, as well as current political, social, and cultural issues. His art also comments on the common traits of the human condition including greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, the meaningless, despair, and alienation. He has also made many satirical comments, especially about politics and social issues in his books. We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.(Banksy, Wall and Piece). He believes that graffiti is a form of underclass revenge; and he also hopes that his work will show the public that although power(governments) exist and works against you, that power is not terribly efficient and it can and should be deceived. It has been said that Banksy is a true artistic renegade of modern times.(Fashion Indie). Banksy began to be a serious freehand graffiti artist in 1990 with a group called the Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew. From the start of his career he used stencils as part of his freehand pieces. But, by 2000, he had decided to just use the art of stenciling, because it took a lot less time to finish a work. He says that his inspiration to change to stenciling came when he was hiding from the police under a garbage truck, when he noticed the stenciled serial number on the truck. Because of his unique stenciling techniques, Banksy soon became more widely known for his art around London and Bristol. Most of his stencils feature stunning and funny pictures with slogans occasionally on some. The messages are usually

4 anti-capitalist, anti-establishment, or anti-war. Banksy said that when he was starting to do graffiti, he was always too slow and it was hard to finish the art in one sitting, or he would get caught. So he came up with a series of very precise stencils to reduce the time it took to do the art piece, and that also prevented the overlapping of the colors. Some other street artists complained that Banksy is cheating by using stencils all of the time. Because of the random nature of his artwork showing up unexpectedly, and because it was very good, as well as people everywhere began speculating about who was behind such stunning graffiti art; Banksy in 2003, began getting noticed by art galleries and art critics around the world. He also did an unusual exhibition in 2003, called Turf War, which was held in a warehouse. He painted on real animals with the approval of the RSPCA. He then moved on to producing subverted paintings of famous works like Monet's Water Lily Pond, in which he added to the scenery by scattering floating garbage, litter, and a shopping cart in the water of the lily pond. In 2004-2006 he produced a large amount of fake British 10-pound notes, in which he substituted the picture of the Queen's head with a picture of Diana, Princess of Wales's head, and also changing the text Bank of England to Banksy of England. Some of these notes were thrown into a crowd at a London carnival, after which some people tried to use them as real currency. Some of these notes are now being auctioned off for 24,000 pounds a piece. Recently, Banksy has had unusual exhibitions of his work in the U.S., including an exhibition in Los Angeles in 2006, called Barely Legal. It was

5 described as a three-day vandalized warehouse extravaganza. This exhibition featured a live, painted elephant in a room, to draw attention to the issue of world poverty. He has also made satirical artwork of Queen Victoria, and some of Andy Warhol's work, as well as Leonardo da Vinci's. In 2007, Banksy received the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. He did not show up to get his award however. When asked about his technique, Banksy said: I use whatever it takes. Sometimes that just means drawing a mustache on a girl's face on some billboard, sometimes that means sweating for days over an intricate drawing. Efficiency is the key. In the United States, Banksy has become quite popular as well, not only for his street artwork,(he produced a series of works in New Orleans on mostly abandon buildings to commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina), but he has also had several popular exhibitions of animatronics and installations. In December of 2009, he marked the end of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference by painting four murals on global warming. One of the murals had the phrase, I don't believe in global warming; the words were submerged in water. His 2010 documentary film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, was nominated for a 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary. The movie first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Banksy created 10 street artworks around Park City and Salt Lake City to tie in with the screening. Banksy released a statement about his Oscar nomination for the movie, where he said, This is a big surprise...I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared

6 to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me. Prior to the Oscars, Banksy also covered Los Angeles with street art. Some of Banksy most famous works to date include a sculpted bust that he did in December 2011,at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool England. He replaced the priest's face on the bust with a pixelated effect, which was his statement on the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. One of his most admired and reproduced works is called There is Always Hope Balloon Girl. It first started to appear on several London walls in 2002. Most of the murals contained the words, There is Always Hope. This piece has a sad feel to it with the gray wall, and the black image of a girl standing, trying to reach and catch her rising red balloon, that is leaving her. There are many things that this could symbolize, the drifting away of dreams, or loss, or something important floating away; but it also symbolizes the fact that there is always hope. The girl can move forward and reach upward a little, and catch a hold of the red balloon again(the main focus of the work), before it floats away. Because Banksy has the creative ability to use common, everyday things in such uncommon ways to capture the attention of the masses, as well as make satirical statements about important challenges that society and governments face, he should indeed be considered a creative genius who is The most famous anonymous artist ever. (Anonymous); and A true artistic renegade, Banksy's work and history will one day resonate as the true start of the modern anti-art

7 movement (Fashion Indie).

8 Works Cited "Banksy." Thebrightestman. 11 Oct. 2013 <http://thebrightestman.wikispaces.com/Banksy>. "Banksy." Wikipedia. 10 Nov. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation. 11 Oct. 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy>. "There is Always Hope Balloon Girl By Banksy." 11 Oct. 2013 <http://www.stencilrevolution.com/banksy-art-prints/there-is-always-hopeballoon-girl/>. Baker, Lindsay(28 March 2008). Banksy: off the wall Telegraph (The Daily Telegraph Media Group). Retrived Oct. 2013.

Banksy Graffiti: A book About the Thinking Street Artist by The Huffington Post, 30 August 2012. Retrived Oct. 2013.

Faces of the Week BBC News. 15 September 2006. Retrived Oct. 2013.

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