Banksy

I was exposed to many different art forms and cultures growing up in the Bay Area. I remember traveling down town San Francisco seeing a guy contact juggling with a crystal ball as a little kid and found myself appreciating movement as an art form. At my high school, guys would freestyle rap battle during my P.E class and that made me appreciate the ability articulate artistically. Over all, growing up, I was exposed to a lot of things that required me to use my sense to interpret it and it leads me to develop my creativity for arts and design, needless to say, I end up also appreciate graffiti and street art. Each time I ride the BART around the bay area, I would notice the graffiti art work along the way on walls, trucks, fences and billboards. At first, I only see scribbles and cool stylized drawings, but the more I look into it, I find that each graffiti artist has their unique style and way they create their work. It was not until a few years ago that I saw a picture that caught my attention.

My initial reaction was that it was very clever, and I wish I had thought of that. The satire of the picture both had a dark and a humorous side, which I appreciate very much because it is hard to get those feelings out of me using such a simple picture. I later found out the name of the artist, Banksy, a British graffiti artist whom identity remains unknown yet work is recognized throughout the world. What made his work so different from any other street artist? After all, all he does is create simple stencils and then add a tweak to the theme of the image. There is not anything really special with the art work itself physically, or is there?

The overall form is very simple black and white of the person but then he seems to be throwing a bouquet of colorful flower. The shape of the figure only has enough detail to make out the body expression and movement; it feels as if Banksy wanted to find the purest way to represent his message. Immediately after seeing the image, my mind started to wonder directly into the meaning because the picture itself was so simple; there was no other detail to pay attention to. I being to recall images of riots and demonstration and defiance come to my mind at first. However, after seeing the figure with the flowers, a different message comes to my mind, one that is still defiance but with a less violent intention. To not place a face on the figure makes it anonymous hence it can be you and I, and by connecting the viewer to the work, it becomes very powerful.

Who is this targeted towards? What is more important, the images or the message of which the image suggest? Without the picture we would not get the message, but if the picture did not have an underlying message, we would not have such an intriguing picture. I find this picture to be more interesting than the Mona Lisa, that is a bold statement, but it is because I feel a connection with this image. However, the connection only trend send through the time period of which I am in existence of. I can connect socially to the image because of events within of world that I currently live in, if it were on hundred years from now, this image might not have such an impact upon those viewers as it does to me currently.

Rather than choosing a gallery setting to display his images, Banksy uses the urban landscape as his gallery. He pushes for the unsocial norm, a parody of society but at the same time sends a powerful message to the people. By placing his artwork in public places, often on political sites, he further empowers his work. By blending the environment into his artwork, it actually takes part within the work, and the fact that no one actually really know who he is, makes it all the more intriguing. Banksy’s work is different than the normal graffiti stenciling we see. Although he is not the first to do stencils, he created a style that is his in a way that Andy Warhol did with screen printing.

Banksy has turned a crime of graffiti into creativity. To me, that is something new and I very much so appreciate all his stunts (which I think are the process of his work) to open up people's eye. A wall may just be a wall, but Banksy makes us think why there is a wall there in the first place. I would very much like to meet him but by not being able to put a name or a face to the work, I can assume it can be anyone, it can be you and I or the old man in the park, and that a very special message that I believe Banksy is sending to the world.