LONDON: Politically thought provoking street artist, known as “Banksy” uses his spray painting as a form of pro-active expression. Whether you consider his work improper vandalism or a refreshingly fascinating medium of response to issues within society, it’s hard not to feel a sense of individual empowerment through the defiant resistance which emulates from his work. Some of the greatest works of genius through time have been published and created under cleverly crafted pseudonyms.
Whether that be for literary purposes like Emily Bronte concealed under the identity of Ellis Bell when she wrote Wuthering Heights or for deeper underlying political and cultural motives like early Indian scholars who deemed it egotistical using one’s name to acquire acclaim and Japanese artists who changed their pseudonyms as their creative style developed. The most recent of these anonymous maestros is the Bristol born street artist Banksy, whose work has been in the public eye for over a decade appearing unheralded on public property all over the world- London, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Israel to name but a few.
Banksy’s art has become an international phenomenon, sparking artistic debates and raising a certain awareness of his non conformist views amongst his audience. His adopted stencil style “guerrilla,” has become a trademark in itself and certainly secured him a critically savvy reputation amid his contemporaries, such as Jeff Aerosol and CES53, who was the first street artist to paint on the side of the Northern European trains.
In 2006, Max Foster coined the term- “The Banksy Effect” saluting Banksy as the first street artist to ameliorate the bad reputation of this hooligan-esque medium of artistry which others have attempted to forge, given that his work now is auctioned at several thousand pounds a piece, becoming a collectible must-have. However it’s usually obvious whether the attempt is a true expression of the street prankster or a feeble pursuit of impersonation. Even Hollywood’s elite; Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera are eager to get their hands on an original Banksy.
Aguilera purchased a controversial painting of Queen Victoria portrayed as a lesbian for the rather respectable sum of £25,000 and a quirky synthesis of the classic, iconic portrait of Kate Moss as Marilyn Monroe was auctioned at an impressive £96,000 at Bohams in London. Despite the whopping success of his paintings, Banksy sees no revenue from his efforts. His style encapsulates his hostility towards government surveillance, crime, violence and commercialism which he juxtaposes with symbols of innocence to create visually stimulating and somewhat disturbingly humorous art, challenging the perceptions of the world in which we live. Rather ironically, his art characteristically threatens the high brow, socially acceptable notion of what art really is and what we expect it to be. Mutilating public property and defacing buildings is a criminal offence so perhaps his identity is best left masked behind a veil of creative representation. Banksy’s raw talent is discovered in the most obscure of places, usually regarding the most contaravertial of topics.
This mystery man is not going to let his identity be exposed anytime soon as many of his spectators are a little less amused by his images which echo undercurrents of a poverty of political and social inequality and a little more eager for him to pay his share of detrimental charges.
The need for a new niche of innovative expression is essential for the development and broadening of human consciousness. Banksy addresses this requisite and his urban art is a delightfully fresh reclamation of the peevishly scrawled graffiti we pass everyday without the slightest impulse of stimulation.
For an artist that makes his work look deceptively easy, his identity is one which has proven to be eminently deceptive to decipher.
work of the mysterious artist after having been ruined and now protected from glass
attacking a girl, Rosebery Avenue, London, January 2008