ARTICLE: Banksy Captivates NY

Banksy captivates New York with guerrilla graffiti art blitz

theguardian.com, Saturday 19 October 2013

Famously jaded New Yorkers are getting swept up in the hype over Banksy, the renegade graffiti artist who is leaving his mark across the city this month.

Known for his anti-authoritarian black-and-white stencilled images, which have sold at auction for upwards of $2m (£1.2m), the British street artist is treating New Yorkers to a daily dose of spray-painted art – while eluding the police and incurring the wrath of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Graffiti does ruin people's property," Bloomberg said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Reactions from other New Yorkers to the pieces – which appear overnight, usually on side streets in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn – have ranged from the defacing of images to offers of huge sums for walls Banksy has painted.

"Somebody offered me a million dollars if I took down the bricks," said Jose Goya, the manager of a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, building that Banksy spray-painted on Wednesday night.

Goya turned the buyer down and had Plexiglas placed over the Japanese-themed image of a man and a woman crossing an arched bridge. The art has a black squiggle spray-painted over it, the work of an apparent Banksy hater.

The mysterious Banksy is calling his month in New York his "Better Out Than In" residency.

Every morning, he announces the location of each piece on his website and invites people to call a hotline for droll descriptions of the artwork's inspiration.

The art is defined in part by the artist's mystique. It is still uncertain whether Banksy, who remains unidentified since emerging in England in 1993, is one artist or a group. In the 2010 documentary about Banksy, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which received widespread critical praise, the artist is always shrouded in a head covering or his face is hidden in shadows.

"He's sort of like Batman," Matt Adams, a Williamsburg resident, said as he photographed the Japanese-themed stencil. "No one knows who he is, he does his work under cloak of darkness and everyone in New York is looking for him."

New Yorkers have flocked to Banksy's art, eager to view pieces before they are defaced or removed, possibly by rival artists or those who think Banksy's work is shallow and his fame undeserved.

An image of the Twin Towers destroyed in the 11 September 2001 attacks that had been spray-painted by the artist on a wall in Brooklyn Heights was removed on Thursday night after less than a week in place. It is unclear who was responsible.

Among the hundreds who arrived to see Banksy's art on the Williamsburg wall was Evan Mannell, an Australian musician visiting New York who has rushed to three Banksy images. "Think of it like a jazz solo," he said. "Unless someone records it, it's all finished and it's over. I want to see Banksy's pieces before they're gone."

SPACES AND EXCHANGES: INTRODUCTION

ART TRANSCENDS BOUNDARIES - ART WITHOUT BORDERS - ART KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES

KEY QUESTION: How does a street artist like Banksy use space to foster interaction with the public?

 to foster = favoriser

                                        OR 

How can public space be used to convey a messge?  

                                       
                                            OR

 To what extent does street art transform public spaces?

BANSKY TWIN TOWERS

The Twin Towers (the World Trade Center)

A graffiti located in Lower Manhattan: it represents the twin towers, it’s a very small piece done at the bottom of a wall covered with other graffiti. What makes the piece striking is the red flower that Banksy stuck the top of one of the buildings. It’s a real flower. It symbolises the explosion, the moment when the plane hit the tower. It is also a way to pay tribute to all the victims of 9/11. This piece attracted a lot of attention. People flocked to see it and take pictures. Others added comments, people put lighted candles and flowers on the sidewalk. So this artwork really triggered all kinds of reactions. There is even a man who came every day to put a fresh flower on the drawing. Later it was painted over, so now it is gone (it doesn’t exist anymore), like most street art, it is ephemeral, short-lived.

BANSKY JAPANESE LADIES ON A BRIDGE

Banksy : photo of an artwork by Banksy which can be seen in Brooklyn

This piece represents 2 Japanese women on a bridge wearing a kimono, carrying a fan), there is also a small bonsai  at the bottom. it’s a stencil. The graffiti was done on a wall in Brooklyn. This artwork triggered various reactions: we saw a picture of  a rival graffiti artist trying  to deface the work, he spray painted squiggles over the 2 feminine figures. He may have been jealous or maybe he hated Banksy’s work. Several other graffiti artists reacted negatively, because they considered that Banksy was trespassing and invading their turf, their territory. At the same time, there are 2 men who intervene and try to stop the artist from vandalising the piece.

After that, the owner of the building decided to protect/preserve Banksy’s work and he put some plexiglass over it and installed a metal shutter to protect it at night. There is also a man who is guarding the piece. Now people come and take pictures of it. Someone even offered the owner of the building a million dollars to take down the bricks in the wall but he refused (he turned down the offer). Banksy’s pieces are worth tens of thousands of dollars (at auction sales). On the pictures we studied, someone had written “value is arbitrary” next to the graffiti. This sort of thing would not be possible in a museum.

Street art promotes exchanges for better or for worse.

BANKSY: GHETTO 4 LIFE

Banksy : photo of an artwork by Banksy which can be seen in the Bronx

Space - street setting: a plain brick wall, a metal shutter, an old sofa

an underprivileged neighbourhood

on the wall: a stencil: a butler wearing white gloves, holding a tray with spay cans on it, waiting on a little boy (his master) from a wealthy/affluent family – the child has spray painted the words Ghetto4life on the wall,

Exchange: a man who presumably lives in the area is posing in front of the artwork which is valuable as it was done by a world-famous street artist: his presence adds to the irony of the piece. He is the one who will probably be in the ghetto for life. It is like a gift from the artist to a neighbourhood that could never afford his artwork (it fetches hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction sales). Thanks to the artist, the world of the privileged and the world of the underprivileged exist in the same space. In addition, the piece attracted many people to the neighbourhood, so they explored a place they would never have visited otherwise, In reality they are worlds apart. Artists like Banksy promote exchanges by investing public spaces (the street = a huge canvas, an open air museum.

But, given his fame, his work is sometimes treated differently  from other works by less famouns graffiti artists. Now, the piece in the Bornx is protected by plexiglass and by a roll down metal shutter. So the question is: is it still street art? 

 

Owner of the building: quotation

"This is a public artwork that Banksy has given us, like a present. We have never thought of selling it and we will do our best to preserve it".

BANKSY VIDEO

BANKSY VIDEO PRENTING HIS RESIDENCY IN NYC

Take a look at this video introducing BANKSY'S UNOFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN NYC IN 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvw0YA6eAY

BANKSY WEBSITE

BANKSY IN NY: MAP

Photos of all 31 Days of Banksy’s NYC Residency, “Better Out Than In” and Map of Locations

LINK:

https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/04/photos-all-31-days-banksy-nyc-residency-better-out-than-in-map-of-locations/

BANKSY - QUOTES

  QUOTATIONS BY BANKSY

I've learnt from experience that a painting isn't finished when you put down your brush, that's when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and value. Art comes alive in the arguments you have about it" 


"Those who run our cities do not understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exixt unless it generates profit"