Thursday, April 26, 2007

Banksy

He has been called an art terrorist, a guerrilla artist, and sometimes a criminal. Banksy, from Bristol in the UK, is a secretive grafitti artist made popular by his provocative creations. Banksy images sometimes contain poignant messages with a twist of humor and sometimes they are just a bit of good old British wit. His artwork is varied and includes more than the stenciled and painted installations found around London...

• In September of 2006 he secretly placed a black hooded, orange jumpsuit clad figure of a Guantanamo Bay detainee on the grounds of Disneyworld in Los Angeles. Placed within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, it stayed for 90 minutes before the ride was stopped and it was removed. more


• Also in September of 2006, Banksy replaced 500 of Paris Hilton's debut CD's with his own remixes with titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Am I For?" and "What Have I Done?". The CD's were switched out in several record shops across the UK with their original barcode in place so they could be purchased without realizing the change had been made. He also replaced the CD cover artwork with that of a woman with a dog's head. more

• In the July of 2005 Banksy created nine paintings on the Palestinian side of Israel's West Bank 425 mile long concrete barrier wall. The images speak for themselves. more


• In March, 2005 he smuggled his creations into four highly guarded New York museums and hung his own paintings in each. Some artwork went undetected for days. Banksy was quoted as saying "Obviously, they've got their eye a lot more on things leaving than things going in, which works in my favour." more


• And just this week an original piece of Banksy artwork fetched a record breaking £288,000 ($500,000+ US). This final price was 20 times the estimated auction value and was paid by a telephone bidder from the U.S. The piece, titled "Space Girl and Bird" is painted on a piece of steel and was commissioned by the band "Blur" for their "Think Tank" album cover. more




Here are a few of my favorites from
Banksy's website...

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7 comments:

Jocelyn said...

OMG, I love subversive art like this. Thanks for introducing him to me!

lime said...

i like the idea of sneaking his stuff IN to the museum best of all, hahahaha

Stephanie said...

The West Bank stunt is my fav!!

RennyBA said...

Never hear of him but for sure this is great art - provocative thoughtable and very visual. Thanks for sharing! I have to look closer.
Wishing you a lovely end to your week:-)

morealyera said...

Even if you don't agree with his methods or his messages, you've got to admire him for his creativity and his 'chutzpah'. He's got brains, and he's got guts!

Logophile said...

Oh yes,
good stuff, Balou.
I heard an NPR piece on him a while back and wanted to remember to look him up online and of course, promptly forgot all about it.
So glad you posted this

Sornie said...

The world needs more people willing to take risks like this. Our world is too buttoned down.