Banksy

A Brief About Banksy

Garth Beyer

Nothing is so current as something that is ongoing. untitled

Elusive graffiti artist Banksy is on his final two weeks of his month-long residency in New York.

So far he has defaced property expressed himself through spray paint art, created a fibreglass replica of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined by a real live boy, made people question the worth of his art (art is war on the human brain), and most recently made a 1/36 scale replica of the great Sphinx of Giza from smashed cinderblocks.

Reporters have tried to get the whole scoop on Banksy, but as one informat said in an email to a reporter , “they don’t call him BANKsy for nothing.”

The most we have heard from Banksy (in addition to his daily updates on his website) is that Village Voice had an exclusive interview with him.

I love the Bloomberg-Banksy talk.

I love even more how much people prize his work. So much that they will bar it up.

In the end, nothing tops the fact that Banksy set up an impromptu stand on the streets of NYC to sell his authentic art for $60 a piece and only managed to sell eight pieces. Then, less than a week later, artists Dave Cicirelli and Lance Pilgrim mimicked the exact tactic and stand set-up with a twist – they marked the art as fake and even provided Certificate of Inauthenticity with each purchase.

The stand sold out in less than an hour.

Where The Value Is

Garth Beyer

You can find it about 16 paces to your right.

Wait. I mean 16 miles.

No, that’s not right…

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The greatest value is not found. Nor can you literally create something that is valuable. Take for example, a novel no one has ever read, no one knows it exists, it has yet to have a value attached to it.

This is a common mistake I see in artists, writers, and those alike. So much of their intention is to create something valuable that, in doing so, they forget 1. their original motivation for creating (commonly to induce social change) and 2. that most items perceived as invaluable are so far off the paved, beaten, and forked road.

The fault is in trying to create something that fits a current valuable perception.

The answer to create something that does not fit any current valuable perception. (In all irony, that’s exactly where the most valuable perception is.)

I can’t help but think that, right now, there are people walking, driving, flying, and swimming in parts of the world that so few people before them have been. Surely, some are exploring areas for the first time. I envy them. No, I’m down right jealous. They are in the most invaluable places on earth.

Fortunately, art is not limited to the landscape of the earth.

 

Stay Positive & There’s Enough Space In Art For You To Be The First There

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

 

 

Art Is War On The Human Brain

Garth Beyer

making bank

Elusive graffiti artist, Banksy set up a stand in NYC selling his signature work for $60. Normally his work goes for about $40,000, to $200 thousand and up.

This says less about what art is worth and more about what we perceive as art. Reporters are not doing Banksy any justice by not reporting on why he is establishing residency in NYC one day at a time through the movement he dubs “Better Out Than In.”

This has two positive, but counterintuitive results.

Banksy’s spray art has always been to communicate a message. That message is up to each individual to decode and then act on. Since news reporters are failing to report on the messages of the work, it is completely left to the individual who sees it to make their interpretation and the mass are failing at it. This is why Banksy only made $420 from selling his work the other day.

Many would blame Banksy for not creating work that convinces people to analyze it. To that I would ask what art work does do that?

The other result is if the media did begin to analyze his efforts and voice their interpretation of his artwork, that closes the value of those who interpret Banksy’s art different from how the media says to interpret it. Banksy

For example, the media could pawn this piece off as being purely humorous, when, in fact, it could have hundreds of different purposes beyond simply invoking a chuckle.

It does not matter that Banksy sold his work for $60 a piece. What matters is why he did.

All the same, it does not matter that Banksy sprays his art work around NYC. What matters is why he is.

It doesn’t seem like the media is going to give us any answers on that. However, by the end of the month, I imagine Banksy will.

 

Stay Positive & Perhaps It’s Better That The Media Doesn’t(?)

Garth E. Beyer