Banksy speaks to the Times of London
My awareness of and respect for street art, or graffiti, grew substantially after spending some time at Animal. With that said, the infamous Banksy granted a rare interview to the Times of London on Sunday, and it was sort of fascinating. Here are two of my favorite quotes from him:
“I recommend graffiti to anyone, for no other reason than a trip across town is never boring — you’re always on the lookout for new spots and what you can do on them. Likewise, if you ever get bored going round a museum, the interest level ramps up substantially when you smuggle in your own piece under a coat and glue it up somewhere.”
And here's Banksy on the "traditional" art world:
“I won’t be doing any more big gallery shows for a while, it’s all a bit dodgy. I’ve come into contact with a lot more villains since I moved from vandalism into selling paintings. The art world is full of shady people peddling bright colours. Anti-graffiti groups like to say tagging intimidates people, but not as much as modern art. That stuff is deliberately designed to make normal people feel stupid. I could try and get more legitimate mural work, but scaling a drainpipe is still probably a lot easier than getting an original idea past a committee.”
Read the whole thing here.
3 comments:
Another great pull, Caj. I'm in the same boat with you regarding the whole graffiti/subversive-art scene. Graffiti, or tagging, has always been an element of hip-hop culture that I've felt ambivalent at best about. But AnimalNewYork.com has certainly helped to open my eyes and point them in new directions.
By the way, and I asked Bucky this same question: have YOU ever happened upon random "presents" in your travels around Brooklyn and the City? One of my dear friends is WAY into the whole underground art scene; and he enjoys wrapping things up with ribbons, bows, and whatnot, as well as leaving pieces that resemble 2D gift-wrapped "boxes" of various size and shape about New York. He is currently putting together a portfolio of all these. Should be pretty cool.
@jC...Never seen the wrapped thing, but it sounds like a neat idea.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is going to be awesome... and probably not shown anywhere near me.
Post a Comment