Banksy: One Nation Under CCTV scheduled for removal

Banksy and his team created One Nation Under CCTV last April. Banksy and company erected scaffolding in a Post Office yard in Newman Street near Oxford Circus in order to create the 23ft-high mural. Apparently the team was in full view of a security CCTV camera during the process. Banksy had worked behind polythene sheeting in order to conceal his identity. The piece is now scheduled for removal.

The Westminster City Council has ordered the removal of the 23ft-high mural stating that it encourages graffiti. The consensus of the Council is that it should be removed for the greater good. This is not the first time that a piece by Banksy has been removed for the "greater good" and I doubt it will be the last.

What do you think about this decision? Should street works by artists of note be protected from removal? Do these works encourage graffiti in mass? What say you?

I learned about this story on the Coxsoft Art News blog. Coxsoft previews London art exhibitions and reports on anything of special interest in the visual arts worldwide-- from ice sculpture to body painting. Check Coxsoft out!

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor
www.myartspace.com

The Outsiders

Steve Lazarides presents The Outsiders

Gallerist Steve Lazarides, who began his career as a car salesman and factory worker in the UK, may very well be the New York art world's sensation of the moment due to his controversial exhibit titled The Outsiders. British artists who have utilized satire in order to explore American iconography dominate the exhibit. The exhibit includes works by Polly Morgan, Jonathan Yeo, and Antony Micallef. Lazarides runs two galleries in the UK and is the agent of Banksy. Rumor has it that Lazarides is seeking a permanent gallery space in New York.

Lazarides utilized a disused space in the Bowery in downtown Manhattan in order to open The Outsiders exhibit late in September. Since that time the show has had more foot traffic than the recent Gilbert & George retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Over twenty thousand people have viewed the exhibit so far-- including Damien Hirst who purchased a portrait of Paris Hilton composed of pornographic images by Jonathan Yeo for $40,000. The Outsiders will come to a close on October 31st.

Links of Interest:

www.lazinc.com

www.antonymicallef.com

www.jonathanyeo.com

www.pollymorgan.co.uk

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Senior Editor

www.myartspace.com

Banksy hits New York and Opens Pet Store

Gothamist broke a story yesterday about Banksy’s new billboards in New York. Apparently one is located at the corner of Houston and Macdougal, and another on Canal and West Broadway. Banksy had the following to say to Gothamist about his billboards, “I wanted to play the corporations at their own game, at the same scale and in the same locations. The advantage of billboard companies is that they’ll let you write anything for money, even if what you write is questioning the ethics of letting someone write anything because they have money.”

Is Banksy building up excitement for a major New York exhibit? Maybe. Rumors are bouncing around. As it stands he has already established a public exhibit in the form of a pet store. However, the only aspect of street art involved with the space is that it can be observed from the street. At 89 7th Avenue between West 4th and Bleeker Street in the West Village of New York City one can find Banksy's Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill. Banksy's work in the space involves hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and other foods representing animals as if they were pets. Banksy utilized animatronics so that the 'pets' move around. Apparently this is the first time that Banksy has used animatronics.

Video by Marc Schil

Of the work Banksy has stated, “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art."

McDonald's Chicken McNuggets sip barbecue sauce.

Links of Interest:
www.banksy.co.uk
www.woostercollective.com
www.gothamist.com

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Senior Editor

www.myartspace.com

Art Space Criticism: Is Banksy an Activist or an Artist?

Responding to a recent comment on my blog, I thought I might talk a little bit about Banksy, who does seem to be pretty popular these days.

Banksy (his official website with many images) is a contemporary artist/activist who “defaces” various contexts or objects, creating elaborate graffiti works in urban landscapes, secretly placing unauthorized artworks into exhibitions, or reconfiguring kitschy store bought paintings (see Tim Hawkinson's earlier works). Like many graffiti artists, Banksy’s identity is a secret, ostensibly to protect him from prosecution or jail time, although it’s known that he’s a white male (I think). In his work, Banksy repurposes popular icons or images, employs a direct, illustrative style, and gives his images the theatrical effect of actually existing in the viewer’s space. And while his subversion of popular culture (culture jamming) isn't so new (1989 - Adbusters first published), his creation of large-scale stenciled graffiti seems somewhat innovative in graffiti history (as far as I know…). And Banksy's use of photography and the media to disseminate his images around the world (not unlike Maurizio Cattelan, et. al.) is interesting. A longer, better biography is available (as usual) at Wikipedia.


Now, for me, I find Banksy's work kind of confusing. Because if I think about it as art, I'm bored. But, if I think about it as activism or culture jamming, it's pretty good. Strange, right? I think this goes back to beliefs about art that inform my criticisms. Like, I think "good art" is an innovative play of forms (visual, conceptual, social, etc.). In this way I think art can discover things and doesn't have to illustrate things we already know. Like, if Banksy puts an inflatable detainment camp prisoner in Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride (ha! See above), he's using site specificity (70's art) and a collage of visual icons (Hannah Hoch's dada collage) to talk about American insularity in a time of war. And that's a fine topic to draw attention to. But I think art can be more than just drawing attention to popular issues through familiar art techniques. Like, I think art can anticipate or identify issues we're not even aware of yet...

But, for a moment, I'll compare Banksy with my idea of good art: an innovative play of forms. Well, his work doesn’t really make use innovative materials (seen any new media graffiti recently?) or use its site(s) in a very sophisticated manner (whoa, it’s like the angel’s actually IN the doorway!). And, often, the content is a little thin, since he attacks big, easy targets (Paris Hilton, Disneyland, the London Zoo) and prefers explicit images (Worry, don’t be happy). Like, what can I say about art that wants to critique Paris Hilton?

So, let's consider it activism, like, take his work on the Israeli West Bank barrier. His work there appealed to our basic humanity and/or our love of basic clichés (i.e. walls should be knocked down…), and simplified a conflict in which the West’s interventions are already controversial (do Palestinians really need Banksy’s opinion/intervention, too?). But at least he was willing to make a stand and put his ideas out there, get feedback, and get it all on the BBC. And while the work may not be breathtakingly insightful, it probably incited more dialogue and coverage for an unacceptable situation. And that seems pretty good to me (not that anyone cares what I think...).

So, in the end, I see what Banksy does as a kind of activism, a vague definition: drawing attention to issues through artistic techniques. But I don't think it's great art. But Guernica, that's great art...right?