Banksy

It needs just one man to take something previously considered an anti-social nuisance and raise it to a level of respectability; that is, if that one man has something a wee bit special. Call it street art or call it graffiti, but thanks to Banksy daubing on walls is all the rage.

Artistically gifted and with a great eye for the satirical punch of word and image, our man now has something very close to international fame, even though no one has any idea who the hell he really is, let alone what he looks like. Banksy's witty paintings/stencils have been popping up particularly in more central eastern districts of London such as hip Hoxton/Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and the City itself for a few years now as well as occasionally in Soho and Camden, earning a cult following that has subsequently grown into the mainstream consciousness. So admired and celebrated have they become that once sniffy councils have taken steps to protect and preserve these illegal guerilla art masterworks. In fact a Banksy work near Chalk Farm tube in NW1 that was itself vandalised was then cleaned up at the behest of the suits in high places. Hold on a second, do I smell burning?












I've taken to the street myself, of course, not with a can of spray paint, but through a desire to see the Banksy works in their natural urban environments. The photos you see are this blog author's own; taken whilst wandering around the East End of London fairly early on a Saturday or Sunday morning while everyone's either too sleepy or too wasted to try and nick your camera.

Many of the best-known earlier works are sadly no longer there to be seen at all, while others are barely visible having seen and weathered too much of the metropolitan hurly-burly before people decided to look after them properly. Some recent new additions have appeared in the Old Street area that I'm yet to see for myself, as well as two variations on the same drawing that have turned up in East London and the West London Ladbroke Grove areas.













There are still many of Banky's trademark rats alive and kicking; somehow mirroring the actual species' highly successful and dreaded instinct for survival. Gangsta rat, parachute rat, protest rat, toxic rat, bling rat, umbrella rat, giant car park rat with knife and fork, paparazzi rat, rats fixing and welding; rats of every persuasion. The man's affinity for one of the world's most detested creatures is explained rather beautifully in his own rather strangely profound words in this excerpt from his Wall & Piece book:

"They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees. If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved, then rats are the ultimate role model."

















Of course Banksy is not strictly a street artist these days as his work has been shown in proper West End galleries and stuff, but it's nice to think he's now firmly set on subverting things from the inside too.

There's been a street art explosion in recent times following the Banksy lead where wit, social comment and actual artistic ability has come to the fore ahead of the typically moronic graffiti tagging of any wall or train going with the dumb scrawl of brain-dead youth keen to mark their territory, as if anyone gives a monkey's.













I like it when Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street suddenly appears amongst a row of bins in Shoreditch, or when the street artist known as Eine decides to sum the scene up in one big ironic word on a wall somewhere.













Banksy