Banksy

Banksy is a Bristol born artist who is known for his decorative wall art in notable cities from London to New York.

Banksy is an artist who demonstrates expression as the intensions of his art work is to send a political or social message, which makes Banksy similar to graffiti artists. Although often his art work takes a darker tone to perhaps hint at issues such as depression which is why his art work is important to show a true expression of emotion which is why his art work is very personal. He became involved in graffiti during the Bristol aerosol bloom in the late 1980’s, perhaps rebelling against the oppressive government at this time, in a time of a huge recession and mass unemployment. Therefore, his art work was and still is used to expose the flaws of society.

What is strange is that his identity is unknown which in someways could suggest he is an introverted character opposed to expressive. Although, in some ways, it implies that he uses his art as a form of expression without it being exploited by his own identity, therefore his form of expression has no limits.

Some of his work is described as very ‘tongue in cheek’ as some of messages could be seen as taboo, for example, one of his most famous pieces of art work.

The art work shows a street fighter replacing a weapon for a bouquet of flowers, which is a very controversial piece of art work. The message can be taken in multiple ways which is why art is a way of expressing your ideas as you can make it what you want. My analysis of this art work is that Banksy could be suggesting that although fighting is conventionally associated with violence, it can sometimes bring peace and unity, therefore it widens our perspective of different issues.

The satirical piece of art work above is to poke fun at our modern day lives, highlighting that we are note expressing ourselves enough as we all seek the same values in life, there is now little differentiation. For instance, we all have iPhones and shop at the same high street shops.

 

By Chloe Cotterill