TOW #14 "Banksy" (Visual)

Street art is very conflicted. It is both hated and loved. It is underappreciated, illegal, and misread. Lesser-known artists are rewarded with fines, and their art is labeled as vandalism.  While prominent street artists with house hold names are celebrated for their creativity, and admired for their rebellious spirit. In my TOW I chose to analyze a true founder of street art, Banksy. Banksy is identified as the worlds most secretive British graffiti artist. He frequently paints controversial, but influential images on buildings in famous cities like New York, Los Angeles, and London. The hype about Bansky is his secretive persona, no one knows who he is, which adds to the mystery he could truly be anyone. Today Banksy is a renowned street artist with an award-winning documentary called Exit Through the Gift shop, but through all of this he has managed to keep his identity a secret since his beginnings in the 90’s.

In the picture above the first thing one may notice is the contrast between the color and the tone of the street cleaner. The drawings depicted to be on a cave are dark, and reflect an ancient look. Contrasting the cave drawings is a man wearing a bright orange vest and dark gray tones to convey he is modern. The street cleaner and his water house are sharp and boldly outlined against the cave drawings. The juxtaposition of the colors is meant to isolate the street cleaner as a different entity from the cave drawings. Banksy’s purpose is to always get people thinking, and have them wonder about what he truly means by painting this piece. Banksy skillfully uses the cave as a symbol of the past. The water hose represents technology, and modernity washing away the history symbolized by the cave drawings. The big picture Banksy is trying to portray is that the tail end of society is cleaning up things they don’t want us to see. It is unlikely for graffiti artists to be given the spotlight. He is saying that the cave drawings are washed away without a thought, like graffiti. The two symbols placed together represents that the theme is history being erased by futuristic needs and wants.

I admire Banksys piece on many levels, I find the concept extremely intriguing and before viewing this piece I never gave graffiti being washed away a thought. Banksy made me think about the past and modern times, which achieved his purpose.

It’s controversial, and conflicting, but graffiti, like the historical drawings of the past is part of today’s culture that we should preserve for the sake of tomorrow.