November 20, 2015

 

Banksy has essentially become a brand since his explosion into worldwide fame and popularity as a street artist since the release of Exit Through the Gift Shop in 2009. And now he can be summed up and paired to the work that is today so recognizable but just a few years ago, the mainstream world of everyday you’s and me’s had absolutely no idea who this guy (or just as equally be a she) really was. Today Banksy is the celebrity behind the brand. It will never really matter whether or not the world knows his face or birth name or where he lives, because he is already famous as Banksy and the recognition of his work has tapped into the worlds water supply. He has gained the superpower status because of celebrity recognition, film director, and publicity from these rogue art collectors who remove entire walls to showcase them in galleries across the world, however, I don’t agree that he has lost any real credibility. He has been doing what he’s been doing long before anyone ever recognized it outside of his hometown of Bristol. Granted, he is no longer the night crawler with a spraycan that is just another local vigilante graffiti artist. I do think that because of his popularity that his stock in shock value has gone down. I think that people hate to see something they don’t recognize, but it because they hate it so much they can’t help but to let it sink in a lot deeper and in a more personal way. The fact that his work is now popular, it becomes recognizable6 and when something is recognizable it gains acceptance and thus loses a lot of personal hatred and meaning. Now, it’s just another Banksy.  I can agree with Jack Orlik from www.independant.co.uk that when he says Banksy has an advantage over most rockstars and celebrities, he does. Banksy can re-brand or in my opinion, destroy the brand and everyone in it.

 

This next part is and is not about Banksy. Actually what it is, is about the apparent hoax on the Banksy identity by and Arizonian man named Paul Horner who is known as a media troll and hoax artist. He went from running a successful mortgage company to becoming a paid liar. This guy is making 6 figures a year just off ad hits. What does this have anything to do with Banksy?  Well, it actually might give us some options. Banksy is believed to be this or that from here or there. He is also believed to be a she and that he or she may also be a them. In the belief that Banksy is not a single person but a more organized collection of world street artists and stunt men, this Horner guy fits the OJ glove for someone that can stir the pot of disbelief and meddle in Banksy’s artistic affairs that makes the compass needle spin haywire. He created a great hoax that Banksy fans still believe to this day that he is in fact the world famous elusive artist himself. He receives fan mail every day. He is also the genius behind several political stunts like Obama personally funding a Muslim museum to stay open during a government shutdown which was actually reported and aired on FOX News. He also created a hoax on Facebook that was shared 1.4 million times that the social media site was going to begin charging users a monthly fee.   “There is actually a point to all this” Horner says. He doesn’t go on to say it, but I believe that it is to not trust and believe in everything you hear even if the source is known as credible. People will do what they have to do to maintain ratings and that means running fictitious stories until proven wrong. So I know he isn’t Banksy, but could someone like this be a part of the Banksy scheme to throw people off? I think so. What Paul Horner is doing is definitley satire and borderline malicious but for the sake of waking up the gullible which is something that I could see a Banksy organization doing. Why not hire on a different face? Horners work is just as compelling as Banksy’s work and is making a mockery of people right to their face the same way Banksy does. If I had a lot of recent media attention, a guy like Horner would be the perfect guy to wear the mask for a bit and meanwhile pulling off one hell of a stunt is deceivably artistic. To me, it’s a beautiful disaster.

 

I watched a documentary on the street artist that I am currently writing about on Netflix. It wasn’t very good.  So back to the interwebs where I found a great article about haters on Banksy in our very own New York City. This guy Billy Leroy says, “Banksy is a corporate entity. Which is cool. He’s made a lot of money. God bless him. We all are trying to make money. But don’t pass yourself off as an outlaw street artist. That is the problem I have with it. That’s it. That’s all!” A lot of graff artists are really jealous that he gets all the fame and glory, especially they take it personally since the scene evolved and materialized right here in the Big Apple. Here is a text that I ripped directly from www.thedailybeast.com which I think is a perfect depiction of what street art is and what people don’t seem to understand about it. “Stik, a London-based Street artist, emailed me from Norway where he is putting up a piece to say, ‘The street is a guest book where anyone can put their thoughts and dreams, so things can get a bit messy. Now and again someone tears out a page or scribbles on someone else’s drawing, it’s not exactly in the spirit of the thing but the value of street art is that anyone can do it. We aim to make something permanent but the marks we make are often as fleeting as the feelings that moved us to make them. There are many voices to be heard, many stories to be told and there’s always a new page.” This is a beautiful statement and being a former graffiti artist myself I couldn’t have said it better. So there. People wonder why there is so much street envy over something that is illegal and generally doesn’t matter to anyone outside the graffiti community. There are the share of artists who still admire him, but then there are those who envy his status in the art world and phantom like almost super hero character and hate it because it isn’t them. The fact is that Banksy isn’t better than all the other graffiti artists in the world. His art stands is equivocal to the millions of street art pieces all over the world and the meaning of Banksy’s art is right in front of us but even those who paint graffiti still get deterred from one of the most meaningful messages of this super stencilist. Art is subjective. It’s only given value by the rich and powerful, not by the artist himself.