Monday, March 16, 2009

Wall and Piece by Banksy

I was in the library the other day and picked up a book that had Banksy and Wall and Piece on the cover with a sketch of a person looking like a demonstrator/agitator throwing an object of harm (but when you flip to the back cover he is holding flowers). I have now learned that Banksy is the pseudonym of a famous graffiti artist that operates mainly out of the UK and Wall and Piece is a collection of his work over the years. His work is subervise, anti-capitalist, impressive and entertaining. I'm not a fan of tagging objects as I find it generally annoying and uninspiring. Alternatively, images that are meant to make you think and challenge your beliefs are something I'm sympathetic too. I liked reading his counterculture messages, but don't entirely agree as I'm not sure where I stand on how public supposedy private property is.

He has also done artwork and even placed art in galleries or musuems pretending to be part of an exhibit. An exampled would be a rock with what is supposed to be a painting by early man, depicting a bison or a similar animal killed by spears but also a stick figure pushing a shopping cart.

A few excerpts of the few written parts of the book:
"The human race is the most stupid and unfair kind of race. A lot of the runners don't even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water."
"The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you're never allowed to answer back. Well, they started the fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back."
"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves."
I recommend checking out his website to see his artwork (One that I liked; and another)
Additionally, just going to Google images offers much to see.


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