Tag Archives: Banksy

Banksy Shredding – Update!!

Banksy shreds Girl With Balloon but not his credibility.

Two weeks ago the art world was “en fête” at London’s art week and the major auction houses held champagne swilling contemporary art auctions. There can be very few people who are not aware of the amazing stunt Banksy pulled off at Sothebys auction when his “Girl With Balloon” shredded itself at the very moment the auctioneer concluded the sale.

London, street art, urban art, banksy, girl with balloon, Sothebys, auction, shred, shredding,

Going, Going, Gone! source: Banksy

The stunt is a work of genius in its production, execution (Sotheby’s involvement?) and impact Banksy of course is mocking the art world’s obsession with wealth, value and profit.

“I Can’t Believe You Morons Buy This Shit”, Banksy, 2006, source: Banksy website

Speculation and conspiracy surround this particular stunt by Banksy. Could this possibly have been fabricated in 2006 . Could this possibly really have been fabricated in 2006 in anticipation that it might appear in an auction years later? How many would Banksy have to make to ensure that the stunt could be executed in public rather than stymied by a private sale? Was it pure chance that this particular art piece would be mounted so visibly on the auction room wall rather than just wheeled in, given its 2 minutes in the sunlight on an auctioneer’s easel then trundled out again? Back in 2006 we had not yet had the first gold plated white gloved Urban Art Auctions (here), could anyone have reasonably predicted that Banksy’s art would be so lauded (i.e. expensive) as to be the highlight of an art week contemporary art auction?

Last weekend Sothebys put the so called new artwork on public display. Queuing was about 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon, the guards marshalled orderly lines of visitors, the artwork was beautifully hung to be visible from both sides, well lit, well sign posted and well controlled.

“Love Is In The Bin”, Banksy, 2018

The catalogue listing for the original “Girl With Balloon” piece described the work as “signed and dedicated on the reverse”, presumably what looks like black tape in a recess on the back is masking the dedication but there’s the signature in all its glory.

“Love Is In The Bin”, Banksy, 2018 rear view

“Love Is In The Bin”, Banksy, 2018, signature!

Here is the news! Sister blog Graffoto by same author posted last Sunday about the rumours and speculation and associated ironies and included one prophetic statement:

“Was Plan A that Girl With Balloon would shred itself to complete destruction? If it had Banksy would have highlighted the precariousness and ephemerality of the trivia to which the art world attaches its highest valuations. We won’t know ever. “

That last bit – completely wrong! Within the past hour Banksy has released an updated video – well, we won’t spoil the ending, just watch!

Links:

Banksy website

Banksy instagram

All photos Dave Stuart except where otherwise credited

“Love Is In The Bin”: Graffoto

Street Art Where’s Wally?

Shoreditch Street Art Tours returned from a short break in foreign climes to find a street art “Where’s Wally?” challenge on the streets of Shoreditch, courtesy of French street artist STRA.

This was a Wally hunt with a difference with three of the World’s top street artists being portrayed as the elusive Wally. A word of warning, this blog post turned into an excuse to dig through lots of old images of some of my favourite street artists so prepare for some gratuitous street art history!

No mistaking the World’s top street artist being spoofed with this monkey Where’s Wally,

Stra, Banksy Where’s Wally

“Laugh Now” is a classic Banksy monkey image and from the photo of the silk screen print version below, photographed at Steve Lazarides’ “Banksy Unauthorised Retrospective” exhibition in 2014, you can see exactly which Banksy image Stra has drawn from.

Laugh Now, Banksy, “Banksy UnAuthorised” exhibition, 2014

The only genuine Banksy monkey I have photographed on the street is this monkey detonating a bunch of bananas photographed in 2006 but even Banksy has spoofed himself as a monkey as seen in 2010 in the film poster for his street art documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop”.

Banksy Monkey Detonator, 2006

Banksy, Exit Though The Gift Shop Poster, 2010

Shephard Fairey, popular around the world, most famously for his Obama “HOPE” poster, itself subject of more parody copy versions than you might imagine, is also a street art Where’s Wally.

Stra, Shepard Fairey Where’s Wally (also feat Spraychild)

This Where’s Wally is based on the Obey Giant image, one of the most reproduced images in modern art history (no evidence for that statement but it sounds impressive and perhaps might even be true!)

Shepard Fairey Obey Giant, 2012

Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, 2012

Shep Fairey, D*Face, 2006

Alongside the Obey Giant paste ups on the back of the road sign by Shep Fairey in the photo above is a D*Face paste up, D*Face has also been Wallified!

STRA, D*Face Where’s Wally

D*Face is represented by his classic D*Dog character, seen in a couple of photos below

D*Face, 2011

D*Face, mid 2000s

There are more out there, good luck with your Where’s Wally hunt!

All photos: Dave Stuart

General Election 2017 Street Art

Today Britain goes to the election, we express political preferences through a mark on a ballot paper. Walls are also great surfaces to express political opinions and here are a few highlights from the 2017 General Election, a period that began back in the third week of April.

One of the first out of the blocks was Banksy with his stunning comment on Brexit at the port of Dover.

Banksy

The election has witnessed a rare mis-calculation by Mr Banksy (or maybe he does a great job of just not screwing up in public!). He offered a limited edition “archive quality” girl with balloon print to anyone from six tory controlled wards in Bristol that sent in a photograph of their polling paper showing a tick in the box for the labour candidate. The initial response on Saturday from the Electoral Commission professed that the law was complex in this area but by Monday Banksy had announced a “Product Recall” on the basis of a legal opinion from the Electoral Commission that those polls would be invalidated. Tweets purporting to be from local constabulary also declared the action illegal.

source: www.banksy.co.uk

Well known British contemporary artist Jeremy Deller provided a plain rebuttal to Theresa May’s campaign slogan, this work put up widely across London by the Fly Leaps organisation.

Jeremy Deller

The blind as a bat Theresa May poster next to Deller’s is by Kennard Phillips who produced the now legendary image of Tony Blair taking a selfie in front of a burning oilfield which was displayed in the window of Banksy’s Santa’s Ghetto on Oxford St, London in 2006.

The punchiest exponent of using other people’s walls to deliver punchy political messages for many years is one of my favourite artists Dr d. For this general election Dr d has gone back to spoof Standrd (note the spelling at the end) headlines, as can be seen here above Unify’s adaptation of Shepard Fairey’s famous Obama HOPE poster.

Dr d. above; Unify below

CodeFC put up a couple of strong stencilled compositions. Sadly the one in Leake Street asking “Theresa who?” had burned bright but briefly as art and graffiti is wont at that location but with the grace of CodeFC we have used his photo as the featured imagae at the top of this post. Brexit Through The Chip Shop simultaneously references a great British culinary institution, the title of Banksy’s 2010 street art documentary and the greatest political fraud of our lifetime.

CodeFC Brexit Through The Chip Shop

I am not sure who did this one but the idea of giving Putin a Pussy Riot style balaclava whist simultaneously referencing the conspiracy of Russian intervention in the US elections is clever. [Update 22 June: Heath Kane, hat tip to Subdude for letting us know]

Who Would Putin Vote For – Artist Unknown

Probably from the same “artist unknown” [update 22 Jun: seems unlikely], the rather wishy washy tory slogan “Strong and stable” is appropriated in condemnation of the UK arms industry.

artist unknown

A political wishlist expressed in the form of sequined skulls has been put up by Uberfubs, it would be great if they could all come true but this one in particular would be on my list.

Uberfubs

Many artists such as Subdude never stop expressing political views. Paste up digs at Trump and Putin have given way over the past few weeks to a plethora of comments at the general political state of the country and specifically against Teresa May.

Subdude

Subdude seems to have gone a bit off message with this image (or maybe I am just missing the point) which has been modified in a Basquiat kind of style though as you scan down a polling slip looking for Jeremy’s name to put your tick against, try to get the surname spelt right.

Please vote wisely and safely

All photos Dave Stuart except “Theresa Who?” featured image by CodeFC

Street Art, Politics, Money, Fame

Shoreditch Street Art Tours’ guide Dave was interviewed on TRT World alongside illuminati such as street artist Pure Evil and gallerist Steve Lazarides, exalted company indeed.

Journalist Emma Birchley put together a well thought out assessment of street art as both a political voice and a career for urban artists. It becomes clear that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Street artists who work features in the clip that regularly feature on our tours include Manyoly (France), K-Guy (UK), A.CE (UK), Tizer ID, Amara por Dios (Swe), Bambi (UK) and someone called Banksy.

Links:

New Banksy Appears In Dover

Another year, another Banksy, at last! The port of Dover, a major port with the shortest distance between UK and the European mainland, found itself the proud home of the latest outdoor street art masterpiece by Banksy. A huge version of the EU flag with a worker chipping away at one of the 12 stars greets inland arrivals coming into the port on the main road from London.

Banksy

When it reveals itself to you from about ¾ mile away on the hill descending into Dover, its audacious scale and visibility is quite breath taking. This isn’t tucked away on a back street facing somewhere anonymous, you simply can’t miss it. By the end of this year this could be one of the most viewed single works of art in the country, perhaps even the World.

Close up the attention to detail is awesome. Check the drop shadows on the chipped off pieces of the stars, look also at the cracks, they are stunningly painted and close up you can see each crack represented by two contrasting lines very precisely drawn alongside each other.

Banksy

The subject of the work is clear, it’s about Britain leaving the EU but is the piece perhaps a bit ambiguous? Is the worker “Leave” supporter taking great delight in symbolically destroying the EU or are his actions showing us how devastating the course the UK is seemingly irretrievably embarked upon is, in other words pro-Remain. Context is everything with Banksy and his views are pretty clear if you think back to art he put up in Calais in 2015, Steve Jobs as an immigrant; a child gazing through a telescope across the channel to England but a vulture (death) perches on the telescope; and his “We’re not all in the same boat”, a raft borrowed from “The Raft Of The Medusa” by Théodore Géricault. The issue was the refugee crisis but the clear message was more compassion was needed meaning open boarders, Banksy is pretty clearly a Remainer.

Banksy

Timing is a bit of an issue since the decisive vote which lead to our latest Prime Minister changing her mind completely from “remain” to “a red, white and blue Brexit” was 10 months ago. The issue is central to our current general election process but only to the extent that the PM seeks a mandate to do as much damage as she can without subsequent recourse to the population. Banksy’s mural seems to be more timely if considered in the context of the French presidential election which reaches its climax this weekend as the eminently sensible French electorate chose a centrist pro EU president rather than a far right candidate hell bent on wreaking further disunity and harm to the EU.

Dover – Gateway to Europe

The placement of this piece is magical. Dover is defined in its present and its history by this country’s relationship with the continent, whether that means trade, migration, vacation or war. Almost no one passes through Dover without registering that this is a point of departure, arrival and communication and it is all about the short cross sea link to France. It is hard to imagine a place in the UK where a Brexit piece could resonate more with its surroundings.

This post is an abridged version of a post I wrote for Graffoto blog, head over there for more views on the way Banksy may have created this masterpiece and similarities to older Banksy street art.

Banksy GCHQ Reduced to Rubble – Or Is It?

A mist of news, rumour and myth swirls around Banksy and at times he doesn’t actually need to do anything to cause it.

Back in 2014 Banksy executed one of his best pieces, a trio of spies eavesdropping on the conversations of people using a phone box in Cheltenham (written about here). Cheltenham is home of GCHQ or to give it its full official title and description, the UK Government Communications Headquarters which is “the centre for Her Majesty’s Government’s Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) activities”.

Banksy Spies – photo Martin Bull

The subject, the placement and the execution were absolutely top notch as can be seen in the photograph above by Martin Bull (author of the highly recommended Banksy Locations and Tours Vols 1 and 2, among other books).

News broke yesterday that someone had removed the wall on which the Banksy spies had been painted, photographs show a rectangular cut out from the wall where one of the spooks had been and a pile of rubble on the ground. There is a lot of uncertainty about what actually has happened to the Banksy and you perhaps should just read the BBC article here.

photo: from BBC report (link above)

A perhaps less noticed twist was that the Banksy incorporated the BT phone box into the piece, so anyone seeking to remove the piece and there are such people, see Mr Robin “Bankrobber” Barton mentioned in the BBC link, would need to strike a deal with both the owner of the property and BT. Of course a phone box could be simply purchased though it would be unlikely to be the original phone box, so the piece would be not completely original.

Another little morsel of intrigue and curiosity is that it turns out the seemingly undistinguished end of terrace Victorian property on which the Spies piece was painted was a Grade II listed building. Technically the owners would have been obliged and could have been compelled to remove the Banksy to restore the property to its previous condition. However as can be seen in this BBC report a retrospective planning permission was given to incorporate the Banksy into the building’s listed status so that it could remain where it was. That actually means that the owner of the building would have to preserve the Banksy, making the whole episode just a bit more murky.

This is the second time (to my knowledge) that a Banksy work has been protected in a planning application, I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Banksy vs French Embassy In London

After a long long wait (since mid 2012 actually) Banksy has sent us scrambling with a new piece of street art in London.

It is a stunning piece, combining political content, perfect placement and the big “wow – how did he pull that off?” factor.

The piece references the gassing of refugees in the Calais Jungle by French Police earlier this month. It is placed right opposite the French Embassy, under the watchful gaze of their armed security guards and CCTV cameras.

Sadly this morning developers refurbishing the premises the art is place on were implementing a plan to preserve the work and solve health and safety issues arising from its placement, i.e., they were going to have it. The removal attempt was temporarily aborted and they have resorted to covering it up with plywood. so relieved to have got there in time.

There is a more detailed assessment I have written on Graffoto

all photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsinEngland

Dismaland – Banksy is back!

British street artist Banksy has sprung a surprise on the unsuspecting public by opening an epic new show in the West Country coastal resort Weston Super Mare. While setting out to parody disappointing fairground parks it succeeds in creating a hugely entertaining adventure with art and what Banksy describes as “entry-level anarchy” included.

There are fairground rides, stalls, a fairy castle which is grim rather than Grimm, galleries, cafes and bars and of course you exit through the gift shop.

Banksy himself has created 10 new works for the event and in the galleries and various other locations are sculptures, installations and paintings by another 60 or so artists. The program also features performances, film, bands and DJs.

Banksy’s last significant activity was the “Better Out Than In” 30 day residency on the streets of New York in 2013 and before that he had epic art events in the UK with Cans Festival in 2008 and Banksy v. Bristol Museum in 2009. This production manages to trump all those for a variety of reasons.

The creation of Dismaland was shrouded in mystery, there had been rumours for over a month that Bansky was up to something at the abandoned lido site but a pretend Grey Fox film production was used to mask the true intention behind the work taking place on the site. The announcement came 3 days before the official opening, typical Banksy secrecy and short notice.

Banksy, Dismaland , street art, street artist, Weston Super Mare, exhibition

Bill Barminski – X-Ray search (cardboard plus performance guards)

To get deeper into the Dismaland experience and for insights into Banksy’s achievement, check Graffoto’s review (written by Dave, Shoreditch Street Art Tour’s guide).

Admission costs £3 per person and is either by timed entry tickets booked online here or some are available on the day at the site but are likely to be then subject to queuing with a one-out-one-in system in operation. At the moment the ticket website is down and expected to go live at noon on Tuesday 26th August. Monday 25th is “walk up, cash only” admission.

All photos: Dave Stuart except featured image courtesy Banksy website www.dismaland.co.uk

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