Pages from Wall and Piece by Banksy.
I think I may have seen some of this guy's stenciled graffiti art in Paris. Whether it actually was or not, I liked it and the images here a lot. Especially the rats. I think there’s a place for creative graffiti in the world.
I used to work at The Blue Mountain Coffee Company in Fort Wayne, IN and the women’s bathroom was famous for its witty and artistic graffiti. They even did an article about it in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette.
Anyway, the images are interspersed with snippets of commentary from Banksy about his experiences in creating street art (I could have read even more of that), and about the art scene, and about society in general.
The only thing that I really didn’t agree with was his painting on the sides of living animals. I didn’t see anything that said that he didn’t use regular spray paint on the cows and pigs he graffitied, and that just really doesn’t sit well with me. Especially the pigs, who have sensitive skin and not much hair to protect them.
Oh, and the stuff where he’s messing with someone else’s art…which I guess he does in a way that doesn’t permanently deface it.
But how interesting to see art that actually challenges you and makes you think.
Cool Thing: He has a website!
3 comments:
Those rats are lovely. I really like them as well. Wow, it felt so odd to write "rats" and "lovely" in the same sentence.
Yeah, how do they look so realistic yet so sympathetic. He writes that he'd been painting rats for 3 years when someone said to him it was a clever anagram of "art." He says he had to pretend he'd meant that all along.
Hey, I'm one up on Banksy (whose work I really like too) -- I always knew rat and art were closely related. Before I started Pudding, I thought about doing another zine named RAT. I'm stil thinking about that rat I saw on Monday, with the star on the forehead. Maybe it will find a good home before I make my way back to the pet store...
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