Banksy on artofthestate

Banksy.co.uk has a series of new works on display right now which pretty much confirm some recent rumours and in one instance tackle head on some of the more ridiculous talk about his tit for tat feud with Robbo.

Starting with one of the most recent pieces this seems to have turned up near the Blackwall Tunnel in recent days.

Situated on the side of the empty shell of a building it seems luxury living in easy travelling distance of Canary Wharf has been put on hold.

This ones already attracted a lot of interest. In the heart of London’s Mayfair a well off woman plummets down the side of another empty building with her trolley spilling the trappings of  her lifestyle.

Banksy has been busy elsewhere too. A couple of biplane skywriting pieces have also appeared. Whilst the one in Wapping has already been removed the pick of the two has to be the one in Liverpool which is still there. Thanks to regular Art Of The State reader Darren here’s a couple of great pictures to show you.

Finally its worth checking Banksy’s newly updated frequently asked questions section which includes his version of events regarding the Robbo feud. Rumours always carry more weight than facts and whatever you may think of Banksy or Robbo the bottom line is that Robbo remains in a serious condition and Banksy has responded by leaving this sketchy outline in Robbo’s old spot presumably in the hope that he recovers and comes back to finally reclaim this spot.

A little round up of some upmarket Banksy news over which I’m guessing he has little control and a review of another recently released Banksy locations app:

Partners in crime Bankrobber Gallery and the Keszler Gallery have teamed up to have a show of their cut out of the wall Banksy pieces. They have a ridiculous looking video, all dark and mysterious and more than a bit cliched, which documents their journey to basically buy a piece of wall. Apparently they are at pains to point out that they didn’t organise the work being taken from the street in its original location of Palestine, they just bought it after it had been removed to sell on to someone else at what they no doubt will hope to be a huge profit. This is pretty much the street art equivalent of saying “we’re only selling ivory, we didn’t actually kill the elephant ourselves”.

Watch some rather pointless video about buying art nicked off the street here.  Believe it or not there’s actually a part 2 to this!

Bonhams meanwhile had an auction of authenticated Banksy works which went for serious money including screen prints at £13K and canvases for up to 100K. It would seem that while shares are on the slide the world over the art market remains in places very buouyant.

Sotheby’s have some Banksy pieces coming up too. ‘Ballerina With Action Man Parts’, a version of which was on show at 2009’s Banksy versus Bristol Museum Exhibition, is from an edition of 6 and has a guide price of £40,000 to £60,000.

Banksy: Ballerina With Action Man Parts

‘Bullet Proof David’, constructed out of enamel. Fibreglass and wax from an edition of three one of which was seen at the Cans Festival is expected to sell for between £120,000 to £180,000. Finally a bronze rat from an edition of 12 has an estimate of £50,000 to £70,000. This piece is unique in that it has acrylic paint on the rat’s brush.

Banksy: Bullet Proof David

Regular readers may recall that I was pretty dismissive of the Banksy Locations iphone app. It’s still on my phone and I’d like to tell you that it has improved of late but it takes an age to load. Oh hang on, it’s finally appeared now. It is better than it was but its painful in its execution. It’s also still leading you to lots of things that just aren’t there and haven’t been for years. I remain unimpressed even though it now costs 69p (it was originally offered at a higher introductory price claiming it was going to increase in price but that never happened and its now been reduced, huh)?

A far better choice is the Banksy Bristol Tour locations app. It’s a neat looking and more importantly actually working guide to 14 works attributed to Banksy in Bristol including some large pieces in really good condition. Each piece has a photo and a decent write up and the current status is largely correct. If you’re going to Bristol on a Banksy hunt this would be a very useful addition and would save a lot of research. Quite expensive at £1.99 but does the job well.

Right, that’s that little lot out of the way. A small warning, the next update will feature that Blek Le Rat Banksy quote….

Banksy: Welcome To The West Country (photo: banksy.co.uk)

New on Banksy.co.uk. This sign has appeared in the Outside section of Banksy’s website and its installation was shown in a video clip on TV over the weekend as part of Channel 4′s ‘street summer’ programming season. The photo was taken near junction two of the M32 near Bristol – but don’t go looking for the sign. A few people have already been there and have reported it as gone missing. In fact the BBC noted that all this may have happened over 3 months ago according to  Highways Agency officers who say they removed it as part their routine patrols.

Saturday night:

So you’ve probably already seen Exit Through The Gift Shop if you’re reading this blog and maybe you’re not so excited that you’d stay in on a Saturday night to watch it again on TV ‘cos you’ve got it on DVD with the sticker pack, the glasses and everything (unless like me you’ve lent it to your mate who said he’d give it back around Easter but hasn’t quite go round to watching it yet  - AG are you reading this)? Anyway Saturday see’s the premiere of Banksy’s ‘The Antics Roadshow’ film at 10.30pm on Channel 4. From the picture on the Channel 4 website and from Banksy’s own mouth in a 2006 interview with him by Shepard Fairey I’d say it’s highly likely to include amongst others the following impromptu reworking of a British icon.

Banksy: “The most perfect piece of art I saw in recent times was during an anarchist demonstration in London a couple of years ago. Someone cut a strip of turf from the grass in front of Big Ben and put it on the head of the statue of Winston Churchill. Later, the demo turned into a riot, and photos of Winston with a grass Mohican were on the cover of every single British newspaper the next day. It was the most amazing bit of vandalism, because it was the perfect logo for this eco-punk movement that was trying to reclaim the streets, bring an end to global capitalism, and defend the right to sit in a park all day getting wasted on discount lager”.

Enjoy and maybe be a bit inspired….

So I think that I said something like Banksy’s recent “oh no…my tap’s been phoned’ piece was probably in an out of the way place and that maybe the tap wasn’t working ‘cos  it’d probably get left on. Well artofthestate no longer gives out locations for Banksy pieces until they are well known or blindingly obvious but I can report that the tap most definitely is in working order. Shows how much I know. More pictures on artofthestate flickr later.

photo: artofthestate.co.uk

A few TV listings for your consideration this weekend. Either stay in for the curfew on Saturday night or set your recorder if you’re planning on late night shopping in Comet or Currys. All part of Channel 4′s ‘Street Summer’ season for which they’re probably editing the ‘edgy urban’ advertising trailers right now due to other events.

The Antics Roadshow, Saturday 13th on Channel 4, 10.45pm:

“An hour-long special produced by Banksy charting the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics. Contributors include Michael Fagan talking about breaking into the Queen’s bedroom: ‘I looked into her eyes, they were dark’; and Noel Godin, who pioneered attacking celebrities with custard pies: ‘Instead of a bullet I give them a cake’. Explaining his reasoning behind the show, Banksy said: ‘Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there’. Narrated by Kathy Burke and produced by Jamie D’cruz, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs. It includes a world exclusive first interview with the man responsible for putting the turf Mohican on Winston Churchill’s head”.

Exit Through The Gift Shop, Saturday 13th August 9pm, Channel 4

The network airing of Banksy’s first film.

Graffiti Wars, Sunday 14th August, 10.30pm

With Robbo and Banksy’s feud (if you read the last line of Channel 4′s write up below you should know that Robbo is in a very grave condition at present far more serious than this ‘graffiti war’).

“Graffiti – the work of mindless vandals or creative practitioners? To some it is art, to others a sign we’ve lost control of our cities.

Since Roman times graffiti has been a form of anti-establishment rebellion. But today it’s transcending social nuisance to gain cultural and artistic credibility, unprecedented prices at auction and even presidential and prime ministerial approval.

However, at street level a bitter war is being waged between graffiti writers, street artists and the authorities. While graffiti writers face trial and prison sentences for their art, some street artists’ work is lauded and protected behind Perspex.

This issue is at the heart of a graffiti war being fought on the streets of London between one of the founding fathers of the British graffiti scene and the most famous street artist in the world.

In London over the past 18 months the tension between the camps has played out in a battle of spray cans between freehand graffiti writer King Robbo and his nemesis, the stencil-using street artist Banksy.

The graffiti war between the two men began in the early 90s but was re-ignited by what was widely seen as an unforgiveable transgression of strict graffiti rules by Banksy.

It was an act that pulled 80s legend King Robbo out of retirement to retaliate in the place where it all began, the streets.

The film goes behind enemy lines as the war escalates, until tragic and unforeseen circumstances bring about an unexpected ceasefire”

Brinngg! Brinngg! Oh no…my tap’s been phoned (photo: banksy.co.uk)

With a history stretching as far back as the early days in Bristol Banksy’s stick figure makes another appearance with a bit of fun referencing the recent phone tapping scandals. The location of this piece is not known to date. Is it on the street? Well it is in the outdoors section of his website but taps on the side of buildings accessible to the public are rare unless they’re out of the way a bit, for use by the public or not working!

Below are a few previous outings for Banksy’s stick figures at the Bristol Museum in 2009 and West London in 2006.

Banksy – You have got to be kidding me (photo: artofthestate)

Banksy: He’s just crap at drawing flowers (photo:artofthestate) 

Banksy: Graffiti Removal Hotline, West London (photo: artofthestate)

Anyone subscribing to a Google search for ‘Banksy’ can’t have failed to notice that a new ‘Banksy-Locations’ app has been released. It’s been featured in loads of places including on Gizmodo and on the home page of the iTunes App store.  Whilst I’m guessing its a 100% unofficial Banksy related product I stumped up the £1.49 required so I can tell you, dear reader, if its actually any good?

No.

There you go. Of course reviewers normally post a little more detail so read on after the pictures below:

The Camden Maid hasn’t been there for years…so don’t go looking!

This yellow flower piece by Banksy is in the East End rather than as the app claims Kilburn

The locations are hideously out of date. Lots of the listed locations that exhort you to get there quick are now just blank walls. Some of these have been like this for years. I pity all of the people who buy this app, buy a travel card and then try and find the Camden Maid, One Nation Under CCTV, The Museum Guard, Bomb Hugger in Brick Lane, Pulp Fiction in Old Street or The Clash chair in Wapping. That list goes on and on but you get the idea. Recent pieces that you actually may stand a chance of seeing aren’t on the map either.

So, um, what else is there? There’s a gallery of Banksy pieces which includes work which is not even by Banksy – I spotted Orticanoodles and T.wat pieces in amongst the 100 or so images. The videos on display are all already on Youtube and that’s another major drawback of this app. Everything is available elsewhere. The photos are all nicked off other peoples websites / photoblogs. This app has just 100 odd Banksy photos – the Banksy Flickr group alone has over 23,000!

Finally lets move to the last section – Banksy News. Well the majority of this is lifted straight off this very blog. Just to be clear I was never asked if this was OK and have nothing whatsoever to do with this app. It does have one slight advantage though. I can get anything I like to the top of the apps Banksy News list because it automatically pulls post from this blog for its Banksy News section. So I leave you with this final screen shot of the Banksy app – check out the first article title.

“If Banksy Can…So Can We, Trackside Graffiti (photo: artofthestate).

So the logic goes something like this…

Graffiti writer Tox writes his name on walls and gets 27 months of custodial sentence.

Banksy writes Tox on a wall and it gets perspex and cctv protection.

Banksy’s Tox piece under Perspex. And no, that copper isn’t recording evidence… (photo: artofthestate)

The difference between them both is apparently artistic according to prosecutor Hugo Lodge who said of Tox “He is no Banksy. He doesn’t have the artistic skills”. Quite what that’s got to do with anything I don’t know. Right now I can’t think of any other case of criminal damage that gets decided on artistic merit. Maybe if I was to smash up a bus shelter window and then sweep the glass up into the shape of a dove I’d get away with it? Or maybe not.

The real difference between them both to the powers that be is more likely ultimately all to do with the folding stuff. When Banksy spray paints a wall the owner is often told it’s worth a six figure sum. That means that they’re hardly going to lodge a complaint. Not so with Tox who is best known for his relentless campaign on London’s Underground. He gets over two years in jail.

Tox means something to a lot of people too, just look what support he’s got in the Channel 4 street summer comp: http://www.dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/entry/74 . Why not add your support until we can think of something better to help?. It’ll only get him in the Top 10 for the London area when he gets judged by ‘Channel 4 and the mentor from your area’. C’mon Ser – sort out Tox as number one!

Tox (photo: artofthestate)

Elsewhere there’s been a couple of other bits of Banksy in the news. His gorilla with a mask piece painted way back in 2007 suffered the fate of being painted over last week. At the time it appeared Banksy had been keeping a bit of a low profile – it sort of re-announced his coming out of hiding. The piece was painted over on the instructions of Saeed Ahmed who didn’t appreciate its significance until lots of locals told him that the graffiti on the side of his newly acquired building wasn’t ‘regular’ graffiti. Oh, and Banksy has reportedly painted Kate Moss’s toilet or something as a wedding gift but I doubt we’ll see any pics of that anytime soon. Maybe check OK or Hello.

Banksy gorilla in Bristol – now painted over (photo: artofthestate)