Banksy
I
was told to write a contemporary artist review on a photographer whom I was
interested in. I could not find a “photographer” whom I was interested in a
whole lot simply because I enjoy raw, straight forward images more. I chose to do
a review on a man named Banksy. Bansky does mostly street art, what people
would call graffiti. People also may call his work vandalism because he puts
his work on building or other paintings. To me, graffiti is not vandalism nor
should it be illegal simply because art is a way of expressing one’s self and
that is one way to express yourself. Graffiti is just as much art as any of the
paintings or photographs you see in a high class gallery.
I
had searched for some time to try and find any sort of information on who
Banksy may be and all I could come up with was a news article from Mail Online.
The article states that the reporters and crew searched far and wide for an
answer of who Banksy might actually be. Some say that he is a collaboration of
multiple artists and he does not truly exist. They fell upon a man whom claimed
to have met him once and gave them the name Robin Gunningham. They did not know
if this was him for sure, but they did find out that Robin Gunningham was an
exceptional artist at a young age. They also found out, from neighbors and such,
that Mr. Gunningham was also very interested in the art of graffiti. They still
do not know for sure whether Robin Gunningham is truly Banksy, himself, because
in all of Bansky’s interviews he has done them anonymously.
The
piece I would like to review by Bansky is entitled “Outside”. I decided to
review this piece because it saw it and immediately fell in love with it. The
piece showcases many different photos of his “tags”. I believe that the imagery
that is represented with these pieces of art are simply take it as you wish. I
could not find much on the piece, actually, I could not find any at all. I have
searched online for an hour and a half and could not find anything besides a
news article on who Bansky really is.
The work is presented on brick walls, sides of buildings, and anywhere else
someone could put graffiti. It ranges from simple line to intricate paintings
of planes and even children. They also range from small sizes to fairly large.
The work is made out of strictly stencils, spray paint, and his genius
imagination and his love of the art.
My
view on the body of work “Outside” is that Banksy wants to express what he is
feeling at that time and place. I believe to answer “why, or how, or what does
it represent” is hard because no one truly knows how they were feeling at that
exact moment in time, without being there and talking to him/ her while they
were making the piece. This form of art, graffiti, is more or less a social
statement. A social statement the does not appeal to a lot of people. A lot of
people look at graffiti and think that it is just a criminal vandalizing a wall
or building. Graffiti is not really meant to solve problems or even cause them,
but in today’s society graffiti mostly causes issues. This work, I believe, truly
does satisfy what Bansky is trying to express or reveal because if it does not
then why would he have created it? In my opinion, this work does change me a
little bit simply because of the fact that he can do what he loves and still
make a living. Not a lot of people can say that they absolutely love what they
do.
Outside Piece: http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/index.html
Thanks, Austin!
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