Graffiti artist Banksy fights social norms in his works

Banksy

How do you describe Banksy to someone who has never heard the name before?

You can start with the facts — or at least, what we think are facts. Banksy is the pseudonym of an anonymous English graffiti artist who has been famous for his spray painting since the 1990s. Publicized worldwide through social media and his personal website, Banksy’s stenciled spray paintings — and more recently, books and documentaries — drip with ironic cynicism and sociopolitical commentary that appeal to the global bourgeoisie. Banksy guerilla art has illegally popped up everywhere from the London Zoo to the Brooklyn Museum to Disneyland, and even on the Israeli West Bank barrier wall. 

Last week, it was announced that his work “Art Buff,” which appeared in Folkestone, England, in September, will be coming to Miami this month for sale by the building owner. It’s reported that it could sell for more than $730,000.

But after that, describing Banksy gets a little difficult.

A bundle of paradoxes, Banksy toes the lines among multiple identities. As a painter who reeks of mass appeal, Banksy defies the norm of a serious artist. Yet his work carries elements of fine art: It uses irony and juxtaposition to brood over the faults of modern society. One spray painting of an older, haggard-looking gentleman with a bucket and paintbrush reads “Follow Your Dreams” with a large red “Cancelled” sticker over it. Despite his fame, Banksy makes no profit from these public spray paintings.

Though his work could never be called highbrow, it focuses on serious political issues. For instance, the inflatable doll he placed in Disneyland in September 2006 resembled a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Other works have featured messages of anti-consumerism or anti-fascism.

But while the public widely regards him as an artist, authority figures think otherwise. Spokespeople for the Keep Britain Tidy environmental campaign have asserted that “Banksy’s street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism.” Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg criticized the graffiti artist as well, saying defacing others’ property didn’t fit his definition of art.

Is that all Banksy is, then — a rabble-rousing vandal exploiting graffiti’s shock value?

Banksy himself has sardonically insinuated as much. In February 2007, a London auction house sold six of Banksy’s works at between $60,000 and $200,000 each. On the second day of the auction, Banksy released an image on his website of buyers at an auction bidding on a framed picture that said, “I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This S***.”

But in all fairness, cynical stunts like that don’t prove his illegitimacy; they only stoke the flames of his popularity. Young people adore Banksy for the way he thumbs his nose at authority and defies artistic standards. Not unlike Batman or Robin Hood, Banksy uses anonymity to cross legal and moral boundaries and fight institutional injustices.

Or so some would have you believe. At face value, Banksy could come off as something of a wayward, goading nihilist. His recurring symbols include guns, rats, inept policemen and rebellious children. Going beyond general criticism to the point of near anarchism, his art corrodes society by mocking its ugly flaws without offering a constructive solution. And if he’s not providing solutions, then it might seem he’s just picking at scabs and creating scars.

So who is Banksy, really? Is he an intellectual artist? Or is he a vandalizing punk? Maybe he’s a shadowy vigilante, or just an anarchist with a megaphone.

The only true way to understand Banksy is to separate the man from the message. To quote one of my favorite fictional nihilists, V from V for Vendetta: “Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea … and ideas are bulletproof.”

In all likelihood, the person responsible for Banksy is an ordinary man or woman whom you wouldn’t look twice at if you passed him or her on the street. He or she is probably no crazier or more radical than anyone else. If we ever discover Banksy’s identity, no doubt we’ll all be pretty underwhelmed.

Like all good art, Banksy’s messages are up for interpretation. It’s why the artist really remains anonymous: to maintain his or her work’s purity. Each person who views the graffiti will come away with a different meaning because there’s no established explanation of who he or she is or why the artist erects the irony-laden art. There’s an argument to be made that he’s an artist bemoaning the trials of modern consumerism. Then again, one could contend that Banksy is a deceptive vandal looking to con people out of their money and morals.

There is no single explanation as to who or what Banksy is. That might not be a satisfactory answer, but it’s the only true one. 

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