The following was written by a friend for one of her art history classes. Posting it now as an ode to her analysis; it’s pretty fucking cool, so check it out:
Banksy, the notorious and satirical British street artist, challenges the world around him through a style of art that epitomizes resistance: graffiti. When critically analyzing the structure of our society, graffiti is by and large one of the most frank and least elite forms of expression. Banksy uses the style of graffiti in order to complement his visual medium with the ideas in which it represents: resistance, freedom, and tolerance. Ironically, Banksy’s work challenges the institution of art itself, and he uses this stance against our hierarchical culture to tackle other forms of repression, such as political and economic inequality. With humorous yet critically revealing images, Banksy has challenged many of the threatening phenomena that our world faces today, including cultural hierarchies, social homogenization, and repressive consumerism. Yet despite Banksy’s popular appeal, the artist remains largely anonymous. Banksy’s message of resistance, along with his defiant form of visual expression and unknown identity, embodies a more raw, yet equally inspiring, conception of the ideal citizen: one who fights against social censorship and strives towards individuality and empowerment.
In a series of installations intending to subvert cultural elitism and hierarchy, Banksy infiltrated the site of where he believes art is censored the most: the museum. Frustrated by the reality that only a select group of people decides what type of art the majority of society is exposed to and encouraged to value, Banksy simultaneously mocked and challenged the legitimacy of “valuable” works of art and the individuals who not only create them, but choose and frame them. Banksy altered famous artworks and created some of his own to place up in prestigious New York museums. For example, this modified Renaissance oil painting was installed (undercover) in the Brooklyn Museum in 2005 (check out the YouTube video to watch this subversive installation and others in action). Miraculously, the painting lasted on the wall for 8 days without being removed. The humor behind Banksy’s modified painting is clear: a Renaissance portrait, typically depicting the subject in his or her finest moment, conveys a prestigious soldier or diplomat vandalizing his own portrait via contemporary means. This ironic humor, however, also enforces the viewer to ponder the conflicting images of a scandalous spray can and its artistic production of a peace sign, heart, and anti-war message. Because these defiant images are coming from the hand of a seemingly passive man with a sword tucked in his belt, his we are provoked to challenge the actual priorities of people in power, and how alternative actions of peace could lead to a different world. Ultimately, this piece proves that despite its lack of a celebrated signature or elitist seal-of-approval, it is still powerful and deserves to be seen.
Banksy indeed does enable all people to observe his controversial and thought-provoking work by constructing art on the street. Much of Banksy’s classic street art challenges repressive phenomena by encouraging people to not only smile or gasp at the unique and seemingly out-of-place sights they see, but to consider their true meaning and “reality” as well. Banksy continued to experiment with the contemporary iconography illustrated in the modified oil painting by creating a powerful graffiti image of two soldiers and a peace sign. Similar to the modified Renaissance painting, this image can be interpreted in several ways, yet it ultimately challenges the issues of forced democracy and colonialism that accompanies contemporary globalization. The juxtaposition of the painted peace sign and the ominous gun ironically illustrates that the two purported peacekeepers use violence and force to do their job. The gun, however, can also be interpreted as a symbol of protection rather than threat – changing the intention of the soldiers from enforcing their power to secretly resisting globalization and war. Thus, rather than represent oppressive authority, the soldiers are victims as well, as they are conflicted between their job and a real desire for peace.
Banksy’s work – whether it is quickly sprayed on a wall, surreptitiously hung on a museum wall, or printed neatly in a book – never fails to demand attention and provoke thought from all who view it. Through the symbolically defiant style of graffiti, Banksy fights against the constructions of social, political, and economic authority that give voices only to a very limited and partial group of people. His witty, controversial, and poignant images not only successfully challenge these repressive phenomena, but they also enforce the need for the freedom of equal expression. As Banksy so eloquently, and satirically, puts it: “It takes a lot of guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in – like peace and justice and freedom”. True to his words, Banksy’s art resists the ironically established discrimination and inequality our society faces, and exalts the ideals that democracy is truly founded upon.
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