In today's political/social climate I wonder what the reaction would be if a Banksy-like, right wing artist created similar pieces portraying Pro-Israel/Pro-American and Anti-Islam rhetoric.
Prophet Muhammad as a transvestite suicide bomber inside a Los Angeles Day Care Center or maybe a positive piece of the Pope in a Scarface-like pose wiping out a bunch of Iranian school children with an AK-47.....how's about a Pig with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad painted on his ass.
What's that you say???
This already happened in the form of cartoons that resulted in calling for the death of the artist.
if you can't see the irony in brad pitt buying up stuff by an artist that gets off on mocking pop icons, then i don't know what to say... but to take it as far as saying that i must be like a teenager and i must only care about his artwork to be rebellious is just retarded... yeah you can dissect my last comment and turn it into that if you want, but that wasn't the point. and with all due respect, people who act like teenagers and who don't know what to think on their own are probably your most loyal readers over at URB... don't see why you would have issues with that crowd in the first place.
Not to speak for O-Dub, but I think you missed his point. I don't think he was attacking you.
I would argue that the majority of Bansky's work is more social commentary than mocking pop icons. Something Brad Pitt's wife (?) is pretty heavily into. So I can see why they would be into his work.
Day said this exactly right: I wasn't attacking you. I was simply pointing out that the appreciation of art - in my mind - is about how one personally responds to it rather than how you see others responding to it. It wasn't meant to come off ad hominem.
BTW, I haven't written for URB in any real way for at least five years so I think it's a funny way to try to get at me. More importantly though, you seem to confuse what I get out of writing vs. whether I care who I think my audience is. I can't speak for everyone engaged in creative activities, but sometimes, it's about what you want to do vs. what other people do with it. This has been my point all along: it doesn't make sense to reject an artist based on their audience. Judge the art.
Perhaps you haven't heard of this medium where images that you just named appear all the time: it's called the newspaper editorial cartoons.
There's no need to tag up shit like that on a street corner when you can see images like that appearing in any newspaper, in any city, on any given day.
In today's political/social climate I wonder what the reaction would be if a Banksy-like, right wing artist created similar pieces portraying Pro-Israel/Pro-American and Anti-Islam rhetoric.
Prophet Muhammad as a transvestite suicide bomber inside a Los Angeles Day Care Center or maybe a positive piece of the Pope in a Scarface-like pose wiping out a bunch of Iranian school children with an AK-47.....how's about a Pig with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad painted on his ass.
What's that you say???
This already happened in the form of cartoons that resulted in calling for the death of the artist.
Having said that. I decided to not attend the Banksy show the minute I saw news coverage of Barely Legal on several channels. The initial hush-hush underground vibe surrounding it made it attractive. However, I soon felt duped and foolish for wanting to be a part of it. The fact that EVERYTHING is masterfully spun and controlled by media is a sad commentary on our culture. Even guerilla artists are turned into a dog and pony show the minute the cameras and press start rolling. There are no more rebels. No voice of dissention. We are all (to varying degrees) followers...
I dig what he did to the Paris Hilton CD though. That was clever.
Overall, disappointed.
IM - I hear what you're saying. Personally, I was surprised (and perhaps I shouldn't have been) when, in the week leading up to the show, I spoke to a bunch of random people - not just one group of friends - who all said, "yeah, we're gonna try to check out this Banksy show, you gonna go?" Honestly, that's never happened to me before where there's this convergence of different kinds of people, all attracted to the same event. So I wasan't remotely surprised when I got out there and the line was literally down the block.
The problem here isn't necessarily one about media spin - though I'm completely sympathetic to what you're saying here. The problem is that in this day and age of instant communication, the distance between "underground" and "mainstream" awareness is a few blog clicks and email blasts away. Even if Banksy only made one single mention of the location on some random site, how long would it really take for people to blow that shit up? It takes on boingboing.net post and suddenly, hundreds of thousands of folks are up on it.
At that point, the traditional news media is running behind the pack not with it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
Apropos of nothing, I'd like to add that this is a dope thread. Some interesting points of view, a few of which cover the way I feel about Banksy's work, particularly O-Dub's wife's remark about "one-line jokes", which I think is spot on. Another thing I like about him is the way in which so much of what he does has remained firmly rooted in the graf ethos. And, although his political agenda is clear enough, I don't think he's at all naive about any potential he may have to bring about change. I actually think this exhibition shows how aware he is of the limitations of his impact - he knows he's become a cause celebre for a certain section of society, and the fact that a media circus has erupted around him, even without him having his grill plastered everywhere, is somehow part of the joke, if not the actual punchline.
Meh. Crap that merely alludes to be making some kind of point by cobbling together connative imagery is of no interest to me. Predictable dross only championed by pretentious cretins.
In today's political/social climate I wonder what the reaction would be if a Banksy-like, right wing artist created similar pieces portraying Pro-Israel/Pro-American and Anti-Islam rhetoric.
When you have fantastic multimedia pieces like Fox News, why would you want this.
Prophet Muhammad as a transvestite suicide bomber inside a Los Angeles Day Care Center or maybe a positive piece of the Pope in a Scarface-like pose wiping out a bunch of Iranian school children with an AK-47.....how's about a Pig with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad painted on his ass.
What's that you say???
This already happened in the form of cartoons that resulted in calling for the death of the artist.
Damn
This Banksy dude is playing it pretty safe.
I know your tongue is firmly in your cheek, but this is unbelievably dumb. Banksy may not be subtle, but he definitely puts a lot more thought into his work, than just combining obviously polemic images to cause maximum offence.
I just gave an impromptu pitch to an Executive producer about doing a shotr docu-show on Bansky's pop-culture attacks. If anyone here is down to try to make something like this happen (and has some idea of how) PM me
the wwall is not to restrict Palestinians movement, it is to protect Israelis from the terrors of suicide bombers and others that wish to create harm and destructino within Israels recognized borders.
The wall protects Israelis by restricting the movements of Palestinians. Also, the wall is on disputed territory, not recognized borders, as you claim. Maybe not entirely on disputed territory, but over enough mileage that it is a de facto illegal annexation of land.
For the record, I dig Banksy's work, and could care less that Brad Pitt buys his it.
Comments
Yes yes.... it's been a long minute. You know how it gets when dudes get steady gigs, steady girlfriends, steady boot-knockin.
Give a call dude. Lemme know what's what...
Prophet Muhammad as a transvestite suicide bomber inside a Los Angeles Day Care Center or maybe a positive piece of the Pope in a Scarface-like pose wiping out a bunch of Iranian school children with an AK-47.....how's about a Pig with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad painted on his ass.
What's that you say???
This already happened in the form of cartoons that resulted in calling for the death of the artist.
Damn
This Banksy dude is playing it pretty safe.
Day said this exactly right: I wasn't attacking you. I was simply pointing out that the appreciation of art - in my mind - is about how one personally responds to it rather than how you see others responding to it. It wasn't meant to come off ad hominem.
BTW, I haven't written for URB in any real way for at least five years so I think it's a funny way to try to get at me. More importantly though, you seem to confuse what I get out of writing vs. whether I care who I think my audience is. I can't speak for everyone engaged in creative activities, but sometimes, it's about what you want to do vs. what other people do with it. This has been my point all along: it doesn't make sense to reject an artist based on their audience. Judge the art.
Perhaps you haven't heard of this medium where images that you just named appear all the time: it's called the newspaper editorial cartoons.
There's no need to tag up shit like that on a street corner when you can see images like that appearing in any newspaper, in any city, on any given day.
IM - I hear what you're saying. Personally, I was surprised (and perhaps I shouldn't have been) when, in the week leading up to the show, I spoke to a bunch of random people - not just one group of friends - who all said, "yeah, we're gonna try to check out this Banksy show, you gonna go?" Honestly, that's never happened to me before where there's this convergence of different kinds of people, all attracted to the same event. So I wasan't remotely surprised when I got out there and the line was literally down the block.
The problem here isn't necessarily one about media spin - though I'm completely sympathetic to what you're saying here. The problem is that in this day and age of instant communication, the distance between "underground" and "mainstream" awareness is a few blog clicks and email blasts away. Even if Banksy only made one single mention of the location on some random site, how long would it really take for people to blow that shit up? It takes on boingboing.net post and suddenly, hundreds of thousands of folks are up on it.
At that point, the traditional news media is running behind the pack not with it.
When you have fantastic multimedia pieces like Fox News, why would you want this.
I know your tongue is firmly in your cheek, but this is unbelievably dumb. Banksy may not be subtle, but he definitely puts a lot more thought into his work, than just combining obviously polemic images to cause maximum offence.
The alliteration here is
Identity of Mr Brainwash Revealed!