I recently discovered a great graffiti artist. He calls himself Banksy and has been relatively successful keeping his identity hidden. Of course, it makes sense to keep undercover because graffiti is illegal in most places. During an interview with The Guardian in 2003 he told them that not getting caught made him enjoy his work: "The art to it is not getting picked up for it, and that's the biggest buzz at the end of the day because you could stick all my shit in the Tate Modern and have an opening with Tony Blair and Kate Moss on rollerblades handing out vol-au-vents and it wouldn't be as exciting."
Most interesting of all are the nine incredible images he made on Palestine's controversial west bank wall.
For his latest exhibition at 'Crude Oils' in Notting Hill, London, he has painted Monet's Water lilly pond but has littered it with shopping carts, Van Gogh flowers but with no flower, Jack Vettriano's dancer's in the rain but with people disposing nuclear wastes in the back ground and Warhol's Marilyn poster but instead has Kate Moss in the picture. Also, in order to walk through his gallery you have to step over hundreds of rats walking on the ground.
BAM!
10 comments:
I love the silhouette of the girl with the balloons...
Yes! I agree. Out of all the images on the west bank walls, that is my favorite as well. The stairs over the wall is pretty cool too.
I guess he lost some street credit by having an exhibition, because that isn't as "core" as graffiti.
LOL, "street cred." When I was TAing a class in folklore we did a thing on graffiti and I had some pretty interesting projects turned in...
JULIE V: Of course, street Cred = street credibility
NOT street credit.
My bad, I am only so 'core'.
I used to do a little bit of stenciling with a friend who is in italy right now. I bought some boards last night and I think i am going to give it another try once again.
BAM!!
I actually had no idea what the "cred" stood for. I guess I'm not hardcore either. ;)
This guy is awesome, although I can't say I agree with his painting of live animals. I'm no activist or vegan, but at the end of the day art is just entertainment. Other than that, it's all quite amazing.
You are right about the cows. BUT when I first saw it, I laughed really hard because I can imagine going to the MSU research farms and painting graffiti on all the animals. The horses would be the most challenging.
postpostpostpost another
i wanted to sign it digi w/ his website but i thought better
Yeah, maybe I should post about how I drove to rochester to find my suit for the red cross party and how it is NO WHERE to be found.
... but that would break my rule of not talking about drama in my blog.
new post coming up
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