As I’m new to the blogging scene, I thought I’d let you in on a secret… I have a passion for art.

Art is a way to express your feelings, emotions and thoughts without saying anything. There are many artists who inspire me ranging from Maggi Hambling to Frank Bowling. But, this blog post is solely focused on one of those artists who is very controversial. Some people consider him to be a vandal, but to others he is considered a genius. He equally provokes anger and evokes feelings of inspiration.

He goes by the name, Banksy.

Banksy, a British native, is mostly well-known for his trademark stencil-style ‘guerrilla’ art in public spaces and his work sells for millions to many influential people.

What excites me about Banksy compared to other artists is that he is risky. He’s famous for his radical concepts. He held an exhibition called Barely Legal in 2006 which featured a live “elephant in a room,” painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern, intended to draw attention to the issue of world poverty.

However, in 2009, he pulled off an extremely daring stunt by staging his biggest British exhibition in complete secrecy. He covertly snuck into Bristol’s City Museum and replaced many of the artefacts on display there with 100 pieces of his own artwork.

However, not everyone is a fan of Banksy. Get ready for this little story…

So it all started in 2007, when Transport for London painted over Banksy’s iconic image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the “graffiti” created “a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime.”

Banksy hit the same spot again but instead of the actors holding bananas he made them so that they held real guns but dressed as a banana.

                                   

A grafftti artist nicknamed ‘Ozone’ sprayed over this painting and wrote “If it’s better next time I’ll leave it” in the bottom corner of Banksy’s graffiti. Later that year Ozone died. After hearing about the Ozone’s death Banksy painted over his own art and sprayed an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest, holding a skull as a tribute to Ozone.

He then wrote on his website: “The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone – rest in peace.”

The End

I hope you enjoyed that little story which shows that Bansky is not only a comical character but he is also a humble one as well.

Banksy frequently touches on political issues in his complicated and subversive artwork. In 2008 he paid a visit to Timbuktu, where he created a mural of a woman hanging a zebra’s stripes out to dry. I believe that this painting suggests that Banksy wants people to look beneath the surface of his artwork. It’s almost as if he’s challenging his viewers to question his art and try to understand the deeper meaning it represents.

Banksy decorated Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier, with satirical images of life on the other side. The pieces invoke a virtual reality that underlines the negation of humanity that the barrier represents – corners of the wall peeled back to reveal beautiful landscapes behind and children playing on piles of rubble that look similar to sand with spades and sand buckets. The Israeli government says the structure is necessary to protect the country from suicide bombers. However, Banksy’s views about the barrier are made explicit in a statement where he says the wall “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison.”

Despite all of this, I believe that his most provocative statement, is the fact that Banksy’s real identity has always been a jealously guarded secret. Various myths have surrounded Banksy with relation to his true identity. Some have claimed to have figured out who he really is. That his name is Robin Gunningham; a former public schoolboy.

When the Daily Mail explored this suspicion further, they discovered that Robin Gunningham has mysteriously disappeared. Another myth is that Bansky is actually a collection of artists working together. However, given Banksy’s sustained success at covering his tracks, there is the possibility that the trail is a complex set-up.

Regardless of Banksy’s true identity, his art inspires people to break away from whatever barriers are holding them back and express their opinions. He wants people to take a moment to stop from their busy lifestyles’ and question the norms of society.

His artwork is debatable and could be seen as not ‘art’. But then we must try to answer this question; ‘what is art?’. I believe that ‘art’ is just another word for ‘creation’ and that every person in the world is an artist of their own life. Therefore, in my opinion, Banksy is an artist and what he does is art.

Personally, what I love about Banksy’s artwork the most is that it’s not a reflection of a positive reality; it’s a pursuit for the ideal truth.

-Rhea

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