March 26, 2004

• I think I would like this a lot more if I could seperate myself from the design issues of this site. I never know when I'm supposed to click, or just wait for more...
• Yes, it's great stuff. But I do feel he's so pleased with himself he hardly needs me to be pleased as well...
• A couple of previous graffiti threads (Robots Will Kill, They Made Me Do It). I'm sure there's others as well, but my searching fingers can't seem to find them. Banksy's stuff is indeed very good (the main menu, for any who lost interest before they reached it). Our manifesto, maybe?
• Oops...sorry about that. Didn't realize he'd been discussed already. Should have run a search. I wish he had some of his old stuff up. The best one I saw a few years ago was on a walkpath right before a pedestrian bridge:
  "Warning - Hidden Trap Doors Ahead - Proceed With Caution"
• Sorry, that wasn't a double post callout - this should be on the front page, and hasn't been before, so its all good. (I just thought those threads might be of interest to people interested in this, and they were fairly old so they wouldn't necessarily have been seen by many of us here)
• it's all good. Thanks for the other links.
• Another good stencil graffiti site which was on MeFi a year or so ago, and I've been checking in on every once and a while is Stencil Revolution. Check out the gallery section and there are hundreds of different types of stencils, even a few banksys.
• There now follows a rant, which has been significantly edited and toned down to remove unnecessary profanity: I cannot fucking stand Banksy. The self-importance of the (self-defined) "underground" is infinitely more loathsome and unappealing than the self-importance of the popular; every pseudo-rebellious splodge of this prick's work screams of a desire to 'fuck with your head', and yet is staggering only in its woeful obviousness. I haven't ever encountered a single thought or impulse in any of Banksy's work which wouldn't occur to any aware and imaginative person ten times a day; would occur and would equally be discarded as mundane in the extreme. It's the posturing I can't stand - some of his work, the rat silhouettes in particular, would be mildly diverting if it weren't soaked in such desperate pleading for iconoclast status - and Banksy's posturing seems nothing more than a product of ego and ignorance. If you're going to use the word "Manifesto", love, it would be nice if you had something - anything - to say. That fucking "WRONG WAR" piece down the bottom of Kingsland Road - the one that here has the words "A wall as just as good a place to publish as anywhere else" superimposed across it - it simply says nothing. Publish on a wall by all means, but don't then try to pretend that the very act of publishing there elevates you above others, that your choice of medium is enough to replace some fucking thought. And while you're at it, that cartoon imagery/military imagery juxtapostion you're so fond of? It's shit. It's dull, macho, unimaginative crap that's so far removed from sedition only Nathan Barley could love it. What's worst is that he's self-aware enough to pose the point himself - "Some people seem to think if they dress like a revolutionary they don't have to behave like one" - but not self-aware enough (or indeed, just aware, full-stop) to see that this isn't a fucking get-out clause. "Just because we don't care doesn't mean we don't understand", he says; well, just because you understand doesn't absolve you of caring. Or at least, if you don't care, why the fuck should I? Great post, though.
• IMO Mujahidin Mona Lisa has always been my Banksy Fav. Id love to track down one of the T-shirts.
• I'll just toss this story in for no reason other than to give flashers the screaming shits.
• Banksy's artwork is currently free at his online shop. I'm slightly surprised it wasn't before, being public art and all, but apparently he was annoyed at eBayers selling pictures of his art and making it into stencils, so he's offering it all for free.