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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Is banksy a sell out?

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23:27 / 05.05.03

well what do you all think? for those that dont know Clickity here my children is all his revealutionary retoric negagated by his his taking of this high profile and presumably well paid job? or not? Personally i like his work but dont buy this dangerous criminal bullshit he surrounds it with, so "selling out" wasnt a matter of whether it was a matter of when, why not make money off something you enjoy doing?

it is noteable that unlike the rest of his work those stencils are not shown insitu, as if blur didnt want to get involved with the illegalitty of graffiti while still feeding of its chic

01:13 / 06.05.03

as i believe it is quoted on the back of Existencilism (always loved that fucking name), banksy is 'deeply superficial'.

the name sums that up to my mind.

its a shame blur dont have the balls to go illegal, and maybe even to do some graff work themselves...

11:21 / 06.05.03

i think the name existantialism was lifted from the graffix bit of the crass collective, maybe existential press it was called?

anyway i think banksy is funny but like his graff says

this revolution is for display purposes only

which sums it up for me really, subversive,interesting, entertaining, but, like tvgohome says, why is it always displayed in mediawhore saturated areas like hoxton and the south bank? never saw any in all my years living in peckham.

andrew

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:42 / 06.05.03

Sorry, am being dumb, but where does it say that Banksy did this piece of work, or that he got paid for it? He doesn't/can't copyright his stuff can he (seeing as technically it would be vandalism most of the time)?

23:04 / 06.05.03

Good point but if he didnt get paid for the peices what is his motivation for doing them, does he think blur are non-mainstream enough to retain some cred but get his work noticed? and doesnt this contridict what he says in his web site about publictity meaning nothing any more?

it just doesnt sit right imho, his action do not gel with his veiws.

23:38 / 06.05.03

doctor beck, i think you may have missed the pun. he does stencils, and existentialism is a type of philosophy.

stencil+existentialism=Existencilism.

the name is fairly meaningless, but provokes thought in my opinion.

regarding payment for his work; banksy does commissions. he gets paid. the fact that his main output is illegal does not stop this from being possible, or indeed true.

the question raised is whether he actually did the blur work or was ripped off by a clone.

if he did the work he was paid, no question.

23:40 / 06.05.03

...unless of course it was photographed straight off a wall, i suppose.

21:02 / 07.05.03

Banksy did a show here in Los Angeles last fall, where his work was available in limited-edition canvases (I bought one). He hung around the show eavesdropping on people's comments without identifying himself, and seemed most amused by both the positive and negative reactions. I got the impression that he thought selling canvases was a bit of a scam he was running on the purchasers. The idea seems to be that if he can earn his daily bread by selling paintings rather than by clerking or delivering pizzas, why the hell not. Having nearly sold out the gallery show certainly didn't stop him from tagging the hell out of the surrounding neighborhoods.

I don't think all selling is selling out. Selling out is less about diverting corporate funds into the very worthy pockets of artists, it's about whether the art retains any integrity -- if he made images for money that would've disgusted him to make for free, that would be selling out. The image for blur seems to fit in pretty well with the rest of his ouevre to me, though I haven't seen all his work.

21:59 / 07.05.03

I understand that but he is not just selling his work, he is letting a band use his work to retian what little cred they have, in a very safe way. if blur had embarked on a stencil campian of there own, or had if banksy decided to be so anti-establishment in his public views then the situation would feel a little more comfortable to me.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

05:27 / 08.05.03

And again, is it him doing the work?

09:18 / 08.05.03

yes. click on the second link.

uncle retrospective

09:26 / 08.05.03

Well in one of Banksy's books he has one of his approved for graffiti walls with a Gorillaz taz on it. Maybe he wanted his own back on Albarn.

17:50 / 08.05.03

puck writes: I understand that but he is not just selling his work, he is letting a band use his work to retian what little cred they have, in a very safe way

Ah, I see. I'm afraid I don't know anything about the band, so I wasn't aware that they were struggling with credibility.

17:56 / 08.05.03

eh?

sorry, but i dont know what you mean...

(uncle retro)

18:59 / 08.05.03

I don't think all selling is selling out...it's about whether the art retains any integrity -- if he made images for money that would've disgusted him to make for free, that would be selling out.
well said, my man. i agree. why do people jump all over people for making a living off their art? jealousy? cos really we should all be so lucky. now, when you get told to make changes to yr work that you resent, but you do so for the almighty dollar, we can talk then.

22:21 / 08.05.03

I think the picture looks good. I like seeing it in shops. Thank you Banksy.

I uncle retro may, and I'm putting words in his mouth, because it's fun, be reffering to Banksy's habit of spraying faux-Met police stencils informing people that walls have been OKed for graffitying, and then photographing them later. Presumably, one of them had a Gorillaz tag added.

Or something. the corner of my nail has LEFT MY FINGER and I'm tired, and thus not making any sense.

Nice art. Lovely art. Cuddle Banksy for the art.

11:16 / 11.05.03

Actually, is there any chance that we could ask him nicely to go around and spray stuff on the front of every fucking cover of Hail To The Theif.

It's horrible, and I feel they are more, erm... "ideologically compatible".

16:09 / 09.07.03

The initial posting reminded me a bit of that film "Jay and Silent Bob" - where the main characters get pissed off with all these little kids on the internet taking the piss out of them.

11:34 / 10.07.03

Most of the graf people that inspired Banksy and started out doing illegal work are now taking commissions and getting paid for it.

Go and read Tristran Manco's book Stencil Grafitti.

22:37 / 10.07.03

He's not a sell out whore slut, because he said so.

But why has he become the most recognizable stenciller? Why is his name the adjective bandied around for this season's Top Man tees? How did he become this years testicled Karen O?

@ BOD aka Cave Painter

11:11 / 12.07.03

Hello A J
long time no see - hope you're well

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:13 / 14.07.03

Apparently he's done a big mural graffiti thing for the garden at Cargo is it, some popular den frequented by the young people, anyway.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

04:47 / 17.07.03

There's an interview with "him" (although, of course, it could be anyone) in today's Guardian. Apparently he's got an exhibition(!) on. Anyone fancy going?

09:25 / 17.07.03

Whowhatwherewhywhen? Is this another one where he sprays stuff under a bridge and then gets busted by the police? I saw that on TV once, but an't for the life of me imagine why, or on what...

And does anyone feel like translating Flower's last comment into English so I can read it?

09:38 / 17.07.03

And now having bothered to waste some calories moving the mouse a bit...

Interview and "information" on the exhibition, such as it is.

15:20 / 17.07.03

Always around Brick Lane on Sunday mornings, and, as he is as a GOD to me, I'll definitely be heading in on the way to Soho jazz. Anyone else going?

_pin, Cargo's a club in Shoreditch. Presumably he's sprayin' the wall.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:53 / 17.07.03

They actually built Cargo on the location of one of his murals - previously it was just a derelict and rather dark railway arch. Then came a huge Banksy or two featuring monkeys, then came Cargo - and it's incredibly unlikely that the presence of the former didn't affect the location choice of the latter. As he himself says in one of his books: "Six months later someone knocked a hole in the middle of it and built a bloody great superclub there. If I had a pound for every time that's happened..."

09:32 / 18.07.03

He was on London Tonight last night (masked-up), he's graffed farm animals and they'd got the RSPCA in and all sorts of stuff, but I can't find any link to it right now. I was cooking at the time, so I'm not quite sure what the point all was. All I caught was him saying that an art exhibition is more fun if the exhibits move around and piss occasionally.

10:34 / 18.07.03

That exhibition (ta, Waxy Dan) is here, BTW, and there's a thread in Da Gathering about street jazz wch includes a possible visit to it this sunday avo.

12:20 / 18.07.03

*cough* I put that link three posts above, and mine works, fucker *cough*

And it wasn't "what's Cargo?", as it's Bansky, it's bound to be a club in Shoreditch. My problem was that "... the garden at Cargo is it, some popular den frequented by the young people, anyway." seriously lacks punctuation. A lot. And I can lack punctuation, and spelling, and grammar, and everything else becuase I have youthful enthusiasm. I can't for the lfie of me imagine what Flowers can attribute hir slip to- arthritus?

Oh, and here's an even better link. Nur nur nah nur nur, Postersface.

12:36 / 18.07.03

... it's hardly a better link. It's just the page you get to after clicking on the 'Location' button of the first page.
Show-off

Our Lady of The Two Towers

18:53 / 18.07.03

Oy Pin- Barbefeud thread is it? I might have missed out a question mark, it's not a hanging offense you cheeky young scamp!

Map here.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:10 / 19.07.03

Graffiti seen while walking back from work in Shoreditch this morning- "BANKSY IS A FUCKING SELL-OUT". Caused much argument between myself and a colleague.

10:17 / 19.07.03

Was it a Banksy? It wouldn't surprise me!

There wuz an article in yesterday's Evading Standards here, BTW.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:22 / 20.07.03

Is that the same "Banksy is a wanker - he sold out" on Brick Lane, underneath "Noone is innocent (except Xerxes and Sue)"?

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