SPACES AND EXCHANGES BANKSY

BANKSY - QUOTES

  QUOTATIONS BY BANKSY

I've learnt from experience that a painting isn't finished when you put down your brush, that's when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and value. Art comes alive in the arguments you have about it" 


"Those who run our cities do not understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exixt unless it generates profit" 




While his true identity remains a mystery, Banksy’s work continues to make the headlines, most recently for a series of murals that appeared  overnight across parts of Paris. In many ways, Banksy’s subversive style helped foster new initiatives and public art interventions across the globe.
 

BANKSY VIDEO PRESENTING HIS RESIDENCY IN NYC

Take a look at this video introducing BANKSY'S UNOFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN NYC IN 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvw0YA6eAY

Banksy : photo of an artwork by Banksy which can be seen in Brooklyn: Japanese Ladies

This piece represents 2 Japanese women on a bridge wearing a kimono, carrying a fan), there is also a small bonsai  at the bottom. it’s a stencil. The graffiti was done on a wall in Brooklyn. This artwork triggered various reactions: we saw a picture of  a rival graffiti artist trying  to deface the work, he spray painted squiggles over the 2 feminine figures. He may have been jealous or maybe he hated Banksy’s work. Several other graffiti artists reacted negatively, because they considered that Banksy was trespassing and invading their turf, their territory. At the same time, there are 2 men who intervene and try to stop the artist from vandalising the piece.

After that, the owner of the building decided to protect/preserve Banksy’s work and he put some plexiglass over it and installed a metal shutter to protect it at night. There is also a man who is guarding the piece. Now people come and take pictures of it. Someone even offered the owner of the building a million dollars to take down the bricks in the wall but he refused (he turned down the offer). Banksy’s pieces are worth tens of thousands of dollars (at auction sales). On the pictures we studied, someone had written “value is arbitrary” next to the graffiti. This sort of thing would not be possible in a museum.

Street art promotes exchanges for better or for worse.

The Twin Towers (the World Trade Center)

A graffiti located in Lower Manhattan: it represents the twin towers, it’s a very small piece done at the bottom of a wall covered with other graffiti. What makes the piece striking is the red flower that Banksy stuck the top of one of the buildings. It’s a real flower. It symbolises the explosion, the moment when the plane hit the tower. It is also a way to pay tribute to all the victims of 9/11. This piece attracted a lot of attention. People flocked to see it and take pictures. Others added comments, people put lighted candles and flowers on the sidewalk. So this artwork really triggered all kinds of reactions. There is even a man who came every day to put a fresh flower on the drawing. Later it was painted over, so now it is gone (it doesn’t exist anymore), like most street art, it is ephemeral, short-lived.

GHETTO  4 LIFE 

Banksy : photo of an artwork by Banksy which can be seen in the Bronx

Space - street setting: a brick wall, a metal shutter, an old sofa

an underprivileged neighbourhood

on the wall: a stencil: a butler wearing white gloves is holding a tray with spay cans on it, he is waiting on a little boy (his master) from a wealthy/affluent family – the child has spray painted the words Ghetto4life on the wall,

 On the picture we can see  man who presumably lives in the area is posing in front of the artwork which is valuable as it was done by a world-famous street artist: his presence adds to the irony of the piece. He is the one who will probably be in the ghetto for life.

On the other hand, this piece is like a gift from the artist to a neighbourhood that could never afford his artwork (it fetches hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction sales). Thanks to the artist, the world of the privileged and the world of the underprivileged exist in the same space. In addition, the piece attracted many people to the neighbourhood, so they explored a place they would never have visited otherwise, In reality they are worlds apart. Artists like Banksy promote exchanges by investing public spaces (the street = a huge canvas, an open air museum.)

But, given his fame, his work is sometimes treated differently  from other works by less famouns graffiti artists. Now, the piece in the Bronx is protected by plexiglass and by a roll down metal shutter. So the question is: is it still street art?

the Bronx, on October 21, 2013 – a tray (plateau) – a butler (majordome) – spray cans – white gloves – – to spray-paint –