NEW FEATURE: VOTE & EARN NEATOPOINTS!
Submit your own Neatorama post and vote for others' posts to earn NeatoPoints that you can redeem for T-shirts, hoodies and more over at the NeatoShop!
Graffiti artist Banksy was at it again over the weekend, painting an indictment of closed circuit TV in central London. Despite the presence of a CCTV camera, he erected a three-story scaffolding and a plastic cover under which he painted his masterpiece. Not only can the real cameras be seen just to the right of the graffiti, a policeman with a camera is part of the artwork. Link -via Fark
Email This Post to a Friend
- its not about taste, its about public space and the ownership of the visual environment. what banksy does the equivalent of a mammal rubbing his scent glands up against trees. before he did this piece, that wall was a neutral surface which didn't jostle for space (either visually or politically), and in a city as cluttered as london, that can be important. now its a big bit of 'banksyworld' and i don't care for it. i feel the same way about many billboards, all tv screens on buses, on the underground and so on.
and of course everyone's part of the system - it's just some of us have different ways of expressing our opposition to it (or not) in more nuanced ways. have a look at joseph beuys's 7000 oaks for another approach, and for how to get things done. i know he's a different sort of artist by the way, but banksy's stock is very high and he could be doing much more imaginitive stuff.
i would lay a weeks wages on banksy having shopped in tescos, used cashpoints (he has to put all that money in a bank somewhere) and he'd certainly be up for the police using CCTV evidence if he was mugged on oxford street. all stuff he uses in his work.
i don't have a problem with his stance, but i do have a problem with his double standards, and his work being such one-liners, with a touch of cynicism for good measure...