Banksy (Part II)

We queued for about an hour to see the Banksy exhibition, which was not as bad as the wait advertised. The queue was one of those snaky ones they have in post offices and had an ice cream van stationed at one of the major turns. The ice cream queue caused a bit of a hold up, which one enterprising yummy mummy and her brood of 3 took advantage of in order to cut across and queue-jump. My remonstrations and loud complaints were of no avail; she obviously had more front than Southend beach and obviously not of Anglo-Saxon heritage, or else she would have understood that queue-jumping in the UK is on a par with paedophilia and leads to the same social ostracism as leprosy. She was eventually upbraided by one of the marshals and made to wait further on.

We had bought a Banksy ‘manual’ a couple of days before on Amazon for about £2.99, the very same book that was selling in the exhibition gift shop for about £13. It is interesting to note from the book that Banksy had been persuaded, against his better judgement, to assert his copyright rights, despite a large banner on the copyright page stating that ‘copyright is for losers’. Mmmm – the words ‘sold’ and ‘out’ come to mind.

Here is an extract from the book: “The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit, which makes their opinion worthless.” He has a point here.

He continues: “They say graffiti frightens people and is symbolic of the decline in society, but graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers. The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy there stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you’re never allowed to answer back. Well, they started the fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back.” Another somewhat valid point.

However, he concludes: “Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.” What Banksy fails to grasp is that the vast majority of graffiti artists do not have the same view as him; their ‘art’ contains no irony; it does not incorporate careful juxtaposition and thought as to composition; it is no more than a mindless and inarticulate rant against society having no artistic merit whatsoever and is an eyesore which no-one wants to look at.

I would not call Banksy’s work graffiti. His work contains wit, humour, irony in spades and in many cases subtlety. It is urban social and political commentary. In that respect it is verging on propaganda – and excellent propaganda at that.

I just hope he doesn’t go up his own arse and sell out in a big way, as it would ruin his creativity, which in a way is what an exhibition does, as one tends to produce to order and then run out of statements. That's when the statements become either repetitive or vacuous.