Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
WG Poundland Banksy ... the final story?
The Evening Standard reports that the Wood Green Poundland Banksy, 'Slave Labour', which was hacked off the building by the landlord back in 2013 and sold at auction in Florida, has been bought by an American artist who 'supports' Banksy's work. He paid £568,000
His answer .... to whitewash it.
Why not give it back to the Borough of Haringey, maybe Bruce Castle Museum.
Or even better, give it back to auction on behalf of the Borough, with proceeds provided to Haringey Council for their current homeless fund, which Liz has recently posted about.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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If Mr Ron English is serious in his view, then plainly he hasn't thought this plan through. Let's suppose that he and his "good friend Banksy" are sincere and actually think that the removal and sale of "street art" by Banksy - or anyone else - will be discouraged if Ron pays hundreds of thousands of dollars per artwork.
Or should we perhaps we less generous in our assessment? Instead considering this might be a continuation of the immensely successful publicity machinery for Banksy and his "pieces".
Let's remember that we seem to have been here before. Tottenham's very own master sacchetti artist Bagsy was drawn into this controversy. As were other even more famous former political nonentities, Claire Kober, Alan Strickland and Lynne Featherstone, who competed for the privilege of "saving" the Banksy for the people.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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The point is that his work is supposed to be as emphemeral and non-perminant as any other thing sprayed on a wall - that’s why he does the work there rather than in an art gallery. I completely get your point about it being used to raise money but it’ll just become another museum piece. He created the work - it’s up to him what happens to it. Perhaps what he should consider is making future works in acrylic, then the first time it rains it’ll wash off the wall.
It’s not an original idea. The the 1950s Robert Rauschenberg completely erased a drawing he was given by Willem de Kooning and displayed the rubbed out sheet of paper as his own work.
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Banksy's problem has been solved.
The problem? How to become famous and rich when your art consists of spraying through stencils on walls? Or, plagiarising Walter Benjamin, how to sell works of art in an Age of mechanistic spray cans?
He - or perhaps she? Or most likely, they - have adopted several solutions with variable success. Here are some of them. A list not in any order but just as they occur to me.
(1) The cult of artist as masked (anonymous) outlaw (rule breaker).
(2) Mechanise the process. Use stencils and have more than one person doing the legwork. (At least one witness to the creation of "Slave Labour" claimed to have seen three people at work.)
(3) Find a really big, world famous wall. Israel's separation wall is perfect.
https://www.travelreportage.com/2012/12/09/graffiti-street-art-in-t...
(4) Surround your creations with the semi-religious icons which all serious high art has. These include the auction with a private view and expensive catalogue. Preferably far away and expensive to get to.
(5) Raise the temperature by removing things secretly. While being sure to brief as many journalists, art magazines and websites as will fall for it. Plus of course involve gullible politicians willing to call for bits of sprayed wall to be "saved for the nation" and other silliness.
(6) Suggest to anyone who'll listen and broadcast the message that the stuff is worth hundreds of thousands. Dollars not pounds; this is real money we're kneeling down and worshiping. Remember that painting "worth thirty quid" is hardly of interest even on the Antiques Roadshow. Whereas painting "sold at auction for thirty million" validates its importance and value.
(7) Someone saying he's a "good friend" who is another "important" street artist buys the "piece" for an absurd price ostensibly to paint over it.
(8) (Hasn't happened yet.) Marches. Street protests, Unesco crisis meeting. Millions raised by Crowdfunding. Team of world art experts assembled to restore it to former glory.
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All of those things. The only intrinsic worth any art has is the cost of the materials. It’s always been people who make it valuable.
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Regarding 2). Many of the large paintings we gaze at in The National Gallery are the work of multiple artists. The named artist did the important bits (faces and hands normally) while the studio apprentices did backgrounds, drapes, trees. It was the normal method of production until the 19th century. They also used mechanical devices, templates, tracing paper...... They needed to turn out a lot of works to earn money so it was next to impossible to work in any other way.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Well it's said Banksy is Robert Del Naja, the 52-year-old member of trip hop trio Massive Attack. Seems a good match. But who knows :)
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/banksy-...
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