Street Art is Dead

A life less interesting

2018-05-11T20:09:00.001-07:00

https://alifelessinterestin.blogspot.com.au/

Banksy's 'Walled Off' Hotel first impressions

2017-03-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

walled off, waldorf, next to a wall, get it? From the moment your read the title and say it out loud you know that Banksy is back, and fuck how he is back.

let's start with the fuck yous because it feels so right, fuck you to all those people now thinking about the price of their bits of paper, fuck you to all those rushing to find fault in this project, fuck you to all those supposed fans who haven't got a clue about what's happening out there, fuck you to you, yeah you, you've already forgotten about this hotel and it was only in the papers yesterday, but more of that in a bit.

If you've one good thing to say about this project let it be this, banksy cares about others, he's alerted us to this conflict time after time after time, he cares. And with this latest fucking bat shit crazy project, he's given his most mature and heartfelt response of how it can be solved. That is, give people their dignity, give them a chance, don't discriminate and realise well we are basically all the same. Yeah I know it's simple message not steeped in contemporary art intellectualism, but here's the thing, FUCK THAT. I'll take well meaning, cleverly messaged, real passion over something that will take me five years , too many books and nurofen to suddenly grasp one day we all die and this is meaningless.

Here's the piece that encapsulates what I'm blathering about, the graffiti lion and the lamb. Sobbasically this piece means the strong and the weak are all brothers, there to look after and care for one another. Now place the religious context surrounding this piece in Bethlehem and suddenly it's power is increased. But really what's important is that central message. Layered on top of this is Banksy's use of graffiti cats previously, he's taken one of his tropes and enveloped it in the message he's handing us here.

And here's Banksy at perhaps his most overtly religious, little graffiti artists, little terrorists, little children, leaving or trying to get into heaven...what makes heaven such a difficult place to get in to or one they want to leave ? Beliefs...that's what.

So that's some initial impressions, it's trying to make Palestine a little bit better it's trying to push integration and it's trying to make people see past beliefs that simply stop people from recognising other people.

What else is there to say? This place lives and dies on publicity, if it blows over too easily, it will get quietly shut, if it blows over too easily, not enough will visit to continue it being viable. Does that effect Banksy? Fuck no, he's gifted this to the community, so who fucking hurts? The community. A poor community, looking for hope.

So you there, stuck in your 24 hour news cycle, you there, stuck with your head in twitter, fucking press pause and hold attention on this for a little longer. And Banksy come up with some mindless shit which will keep 'them' enthralled, tantalise a print release (but please don't fucking do one).

Banksy Prices

2017-02-24T04:25:00.000-08:00

Money makes the hipsters trousers tighten, money makes their little eyes bulge and money makes their bullshit levels go critical.

Seriously what the fuck happened?

'Online gallery's' made up the truth and the fuckers lapped it up. How the fuck did this happen? Money made this happen. Greed came, it took all meaning and it just became numbers, ever bigger numbers.

Where's the truth? The truth is under the patio never to be spoken of again until that fateful day the police come knocking with a search warrant. Because the truth needs facts, it needs evidence, it needs time and understanding, things things of so little relevance it would seem. I've watched money grow ever more important, numbers uttered the average man can only dream of and the fuckers, the absolute fuckers do not see how sick this talk is.

Sick and twisted games laughing at an extra 1000 here an extra 1000 there, rising higher, building the tower ever higher till ....till .... the shit...the arse to mouth human centipede goes horribly wrong

Street Art 2017

2017-02-17T14:53:00.002-08:00

2000 and fucking 17, how did we get here? But here we are

And street art here you are masquerading as some sort of shitty corporate philanthropic bullshit, to instil your imagery in the mind of some hipster with too much disposable income and not enough taste.

Fuck meaning. Fuck anger. Fuck passion. Just give me the shitty well passed it's sell by date quip and some pleasurable colours and my need for any sort of fucking meaning of anything is sated with some truly disposable consumerism.

Street art isn't dead no, it's gone, it's some black matter in an endless void of darkness, it's nothing. Now there's mural art. Now there's a thousand and one useless artists peddling their bullshit with no reputation and no reason. Just money. Now there's just art, bad art. And guess what motherfuckers dr funky is back to talk shite about it.

Fuck you

DOT DOT DOT – Vandal King

2015-03-07T00:00:00.002-08:00

dot dot dot's name sums it up perfectly, you're waiting for more, or at least something, anything, a pause before inspiration

and yet here we are wasting precious seconds of life contemplating this utter , vacuous , utter utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,utter , vacuous ,

shit

the king is the baby, and that's apt, no knowledge, no experience, no understanding, just a contrite image, that will rapidly be forgotten

but hey

peace

Mr Brainwash Jimi

2015-03-06T23:36:00.000-08:00

It's a picture of Jimi with paint dripping off him. Mr Brainwash has now been doing this for 8 years. 8 fucking years. How is it possible?

I'll tell you.

Because of you, yes you there, in your underpants, with 10 tabs open, 6 of them looking at porn, 2 looking at ebay and 2 looking at forums. Stop. Now.

You need a-life a L - I - fucking - F - E

This isn't the road to fulfillment. You will not become rich from this shit. You will not find happiness. You will find an empty packet of maltesers behind your pillow and realise you ate them at 4am after crying for 2 hours staring at your rows of tubes, rows of tubes with nothing in them but empty promises.

This isn't a Banksy project. This is a rich french fool laughing at you. Laughing and counting your money.

So in summary

Life is not Brainwash.

DRAN - PUBLIC EXECUTION

2015-02-06T01:05:00.001-08:00

Stood in a room full of tight black jeans, fake glasses, tights, leggings, clashing colours and empty empty empty words I found myself falling ever so slightly in love with Dran.

Who else on a cold Thursday night would get well off, with no responsibility, well, pricks, of London in a room where nothing is for sale and nothing is to be viewed (okay there were two pictures so fucking sue me).

Just cheese for the mice in a laboratory.

Not one, not one fucking word about what it all means, just fucking grabbing grabbing hands trying to get a little bit more cash for some new trainers, or to brag to their empty empty friends on their fucking handheld device of some fucking sort.

So what did it all mean?

Well let's start with the title 'public execution' , two meanings yes? Everything is to be created in public so watch it grow. But also the execution of the artist in public. You open a show with nothing, what could destroy an artist more? What does it say about the baying masses and grabbing grabbing hands?

It's a show in reverse, you start with nothing and end the show with everything, when the interest is at it's least. It's deconstructing the notion of how our short attention span should be used. Of what we expect and when. Yesterdays opening was the closing. Of course you couldn't buy anything then, it's gone.

What was the statement? What was the artistic statement? It wasn't what you were expecting..was it? But perhaps it was a damning statement of what art is viewed as, by the affluent and greedy?

It's alright sit there in oblivion, caress your handheld device and tell yourself challenging thought is bad, you'll be dead soon, so fuck it.

The Revolution of Eine?

2014-10-22T01:35:00.003-07:00

Well, it isn't really is it?

It's another print with 'his' words that mean, well, fuck all.

In fact it's worse than that, perhaps it's the revolution of the revolutionary to the money driven cog in the capitalist society? Too much? Yeah.

One thing is certain releasing a print edition of 200 for a few hundred quid with the word Revolution, to me, looks like a bullshit statement to be making. It's not a revolution, you're not standing up to anything, you're in fact making money from a symbol of something more, it's anti-revolution dimwit.

Better Out Than In (BOTI) Banksy The Review!

2014-07-30T01:45:00.003-07:00

The last 31 days have been fun. There I said it.
Dr Funky has sat, very still, so still, you'd think, he was, quite asleep, if not for the fact his eyes were wide open. He stared and stared and stared at the coverage and found himself smiling!
In another iteration Dr Funky had become quite aggressive towards Banksy, his last show in fact at MOCA had raised the ire to such a level that it was almost time to walk away for good. Exit through the gift shop had seen stencils placed purely as advertisements, then the DVD release had seen pieces in shops and then with the MOCA show a whole lopsided display of works inside sold to the highest bidder. The zenith of the consumer relationship had peaked, he had walked off hand in hand into the sunset with his LA big wallet friends.....leaving street art behind.
And then silence..an Olympics piece..silence..an altered statue....silence.....silence
Then this.
Better Out Than In. A show which as far as I've been able to ascertain has no sales element. Simply about getting up in all the forms Banksy has the money, the talent, the where with all to accomplish in secret, on a daily basis for a month. And for the main he has succeeded. So what's it been about? The answer in many guises is in the title. The secret as always is hidden in plain view in its simplicity.
He's outside the gallery, outside the money (for now, just for now), he's also letting us see more clearly as the days passed some views he's wanted to express.
Take 'The Banality of the Banality of Evil'...

On a simple level it's a slightly controversial picture (but just not enough to cause offense), an amusing title, a worthy stunt, great press opportunity and of course a chance for people to obsess over values. But whilst the chatter excitedly remains on a superficial level, something is missed, the title. A simple google search reveals the following http://observer.com/1999/08/eichmann-and-the-banality-of-the-banality-of-evil/. Now we're looking at ourselves, now we're looking at the world we're living in, tired of a world where we treat the horror with tired eyes, because we've seen it all, without feeling it.
On its own the message is powerful, taking into consideration a number of other pieces over the weeks the impact becomes something more. The oddly worded 'attack' on the freedom towers aesthetics, was that what that was really about? Or more pointedly a message about creativeness being stunted (more generally), somehow America's recent wars on terror leading to something 'less' at home. Too much? Too loose a connection? But then, what of Reaper? It's fun, it's about grabbing life and then you listen to the audio and the poem invictus is repeated, the final statement of Timothy McVeigh. Suddenly you're contemplating how a 'home terrorist' is different to one of foreign origins, how death is manipulated in different ways. Even leaving aside 'the obvious' collab piece commenting on the 99%, there's the McDonalds art questioning the American store and it's iconization of a fast food 'prop' (in Ronald) and for many the standout piece crazy horses:

With a touch of Guernica and the powerful audio, we're left in no doubt of Banksy's position on the war on terror. Raising questions about the world we live in, the icons we've created, the people we're seemingly becoming. The observations have been large and contemplative. The genius? Perhaps for many the fact this insight is not needed. For others, exactly the opposite, the opinion is better out than in, look at what we're becoming, look at the poor choices.
But still there were other goals, there was the need to be 'real', to show after everything doing pieces illegally was still important. The dynamic of getting up has subverted by his fame and fans.
This residency has been an ever changing living organism, with input from social media like never before. With a band of ardent fans on the ground, producing comment and pictures and many others pulling together information online and sharing. To commentators of 'note' trying to pull together meanings on a daily basis. What is readily apparent is the effect these additional inputs have on our understanding, on publicity and most obviously the life of these pieces. Groups have been restoring them and there's no doubt that these readily available sources of knowledge on value have led to rush for preservation and monetary opportunities, both small scale and large.

It's not all been positive? Not by a long shot. But if we look back at some of the meanings that hang heavy in the air of this show and I've mentioned, such as the nature of the 'individual'; the regard of wrong doing and what it actually is. How we interact with it, to what is it we should be questioning and what is acceptable. To what is the true value of art. An interactive show, a residency 2.0. Where the populist appeal gives us it's own meanings.
So far I've touched on the more serious themes and the interaction with the audience through a social medium, yet there's more to discuss. The interaction with law, with graffiti artists and what the all consuming power of fame brings to the table.
How many pieces were legal, 'legal', i.e. the property owner was asked prior to the creation? The answer very few. With the waiting in vain piece Banksy made the point of letting us know, no permission was sought to underline the difficulty in creating this.

Whilst this is commendable, the notion of fame and value warps the danger. Whilst criminal damage charges were hugely unlikely to ever be sought, because people 'wanted' this on their walls. The true danger was to Banksy's anonymity and for many this was of major interest. Banksy was underlining this was real, that he was returning to his roots, but now he was a different beast. He knew full well the law wasn't the issue for him as it was in the 90's. Now he has the power to do this and be lauded, the game is a hypocrite if you meet the capitalist criteria. But he's used this to his advantage and it's apparent throughout the residency.
And so to the last message, a classic throw up, a nod of the can to the home of bubble lettering and a message that art is for everyone, that it should be outside the gallery surrounding us and bringing beauty to our lives. A last hopeful message and one to contemplate. Whilst the contemporary art critics gripe simply out of jealousy (there's many reasons but logic dictates this is the main one). The rest of us (even me) can enjoy what we've seen and hope a few more street artists are inspired to provide with more than a mural with little meaning and small expectations. Time to take back the streets and let that be the agenda (don't worry the money will follow).

thankyou Banksy

Rebel Rocket Attack by Banksy and MH17

2014-07-30T01:36:00.002-07:00

Suddenly this 'Better Out than In' video has renewed meaning, the loss of innocence thrown at us day after day on the news, captured in a small confrontational way, fills Dr Funky with sadness, anger and a little admiration for making me feel something.

Surely the starting or ending point for any piece of art?

makes you think just a little as you compose that next mindless update somewhere about something

Note to Mr Banksy Note to Mr Banksy

2011-12-02T04:58:00.000-08:00

this is enough to give your kids nightmares for years

Banksy's Next Print

2011-12-01T23:37:00.000-08:00

Coming soon, a three year old street piece to the salivating awaiting man boy hordes, urgently checking their balls have dropped and not their guts from standing in the cold for the opening of the latest Pow show.

So what does it tell us? That Banksy is relying on old pieces? That the inspiration is running dry? That since the promotional tour for Exit it's just not the same? That the Bristol piece was pretty witty and won't for the most part be understood by many? That we're almost at 300,000 hits and it means fuck all?

yeah all that and less

Invaded Banally

2011-12-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Invader brings to you a couple of prints with his logo incorporated. Interested? There appears little to this both in terms of core creative idea or appealing imagery - but when has that ever stopped a print selling.

Hey now, don't dream, it's over

2011-11-29T04:17:00.000-08:00

more utter emptiness from the master of the black hole of boredom and tired imagery. merry christmas mr magoo

There's a show coming up, time to do a "Banksy"

2011-11-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

On the one hand I want to like it, it's simple throwaway on a high street and sets out to do what it should.

On the other, the pieces appear as pow have shows, sell, sell, sigh.

New Banksy or Insect or Eelus or?

2011-11-22T01:03:00.000-08:00

that's a bit of an issue, so it's well, it's a stencil anyway

Anonymous Says 'What were you doing in '85?'

2011-11-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

'Okay then.....

"This is much better than the original, but then that's not really too difficult is it?"

You clueless fuck, the original was painted in 1985. Get some context....

The only exposure to graffiti in 85 (apart from slogans, poetry, and Crass's stencil campaign) had been in glimpses via Blondies Rapture Video, Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Gals/Duck Rock on TOTP, sets of Michael Winner films and the Clash/Futura 2000...... in late 84 Subway Art was published, Style Wars had just been aired on C4, LBC and Capital Radio started broadcasting late night underground Hip Hop imports from the US to London town....

Punk and Ska was losing its edge, Oi was taken over by the NF....there was a cultural wasteland,glue and special brew... Thatcher in power, nuclear war imminent,the peace convoy/hippy travellers trashed at the beanfield/Stonehenge festy over, the charts full of 95% shit....

At a time when the most clued up pioneers were still learning to write a decent tag freehand, Robbo, (previously a skinhead), had the bollocks to make a bold break from a culture that was becoming increasingly right wing, (with bands like Skrewdriver/Brutal Attack/Cock Sparrer etc) and embraced a new multiculturalism in the face of this entrenched aggression in his community and painted that Masterpiece of its time, a prophecy of what was to come, at the same time as he was starting to paint pieces on trains.

It's easy to say it looks weak in the light of what people are doing now, but its easy to say the same about the Willendorf Venus in the light of Computer Aided Design

Unsupported by acceptance or even awareness of the hip hop culture by the broader public, for no profit other than the joy of graffiti, in a very hot location (especially if you're painting freehand which would require a hell of a lot more time than required to do a stencil), and with Carplan and Dupli-Colour (not Beltons etc manufactured for graffiti); he set the pace for the whole culture to follow.

.....what were you doing in 1985 that gives you the right and knowledge to judge?? what was Banksy doing in 1985? Choir practise then tea and scones if the Daily Mail is to be believed...

"You only have to look at the art to see what level they are at. It's like
something you'd draw on your school exercise book when you're 12"

Whatever skewed misconceptions you may cherish regarding their contemporary output the collective historical diverse output legacy of wholecars and unseen new workof these guys cannot be underestimated, but is still largely unseen/unacknowledged by the average street art fanboy.

"Because they don't like the fact that what he does is better than what they do"

What, street pieces that copy the work and styles of Blek le Rat and Gee Vaucher, with the odd pinch of the iconography of every movement the true undergroundl lived 24/7 but used with the sincerity of advertising.???... with images either taken from existing (modified) photographs or created using posed life models in a studio, dressed and accessorised using a props department, then photographed and processed/separated in photoshop, machine cut into huge stencils in two minutes using a 'large format cutting plotter' and then painted by assistants....., (basically printing photos onto street walls) which are much of the time previously agreed with the buildings owners and passed off as illegal and released to the press via rewarded connections....thus turned it into an advert empty of any empathy or meaning, and with the magic of PR sold
to people who have largely never experienced the true underground, as a vicarious
substitute for actual life experience; and backed by a very dodgy 'security
firm'!

Yeah *so* much better than the real buzz of pure cultural expression.....

"I just wonder if he would be as magnanimous if the sneaker was on the
other foot and it was Banksy lying in a hospital bed"

Maybe if Robbo was suspected of putting him there and wanted to change the public perception.'

Obama beachballs

2011-11-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Bollocks?

Crass, weak, appropriating to cause outrage and just simply not very good. But like, the gallerist is a great guy so it's all okay.

Josh Ikea Keyes for All Your Plain Bore Score Draw Needs

2011-11-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Another print, another monotonous dull fucking death take me away from this utter utter dull fucking terribly uninspiring old chap, doesn't he draw well, A-Level biology text book, i like the look of a good cold dead stare eye'd picture to keep me cold on a cold Winter fucking night.

Have I made my point?

New Banksy - for Robbo?

2011-11-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

In the spot where their petty argument grew. Is this way of apology? I hope so and if it is I'm glad to see some respect paid.

And yet, it's coming up to Remembrance Day, it's a weak facsimile of the Robbo piece, it's a piss take of the importance of the orginal.

Which is it?

Street Art is Street Painting for your pennies

2011-11-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

go down covent garden and if your really unlucky you'll see a master painter creating a wonderful chalk piece on the pavement for your pennies. Well you know what street artists can do it too, but like bigger and with fucking lego men! So yeah that's what street artists are really for, the tourists and for your pennies and hopefully some dropped pints and guts.

Zeus Gives Banksy an Update

2011-10-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

It would be kind of funny if it wasn't so tragic, I did a monopoly piece first please give me some credit, okay sure have some credit for a shit idea and while you're all busy with your hissy fit maybe try to remember what the fuck is happening? No i thought not, here's a fiver fuck off.

One Last Circle Jerk Before they Blow Each Other's Brains Out

2011-10-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

....we can but hope

'On Sunday 30th October 2011, an exciting Urban Art Sale is going to be held at Black Rat Gallery in Hoxton. The event will also feature a Live Art show with the featured artists from 6pm – 9pm.

This sale is for one night only! Exclusive print releases are available so don’t miss out on a chance to own a stunning piece of UK Urban Art'

For the fucking Apprentice BRP and Pure Evil will sell what's left of their tattered images for a little more fame and cash - FUCK OFF NOW.

Banksy Occupy Piece

2011-10-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

protesting done nicely nicely for the kids? Lost as to the statement this makes, other than the obvious, which in this case isn't enough.(But acts as Banksy's mention in the press for another month). The positive though, maybe a few more fuckwits will bother to lift their heads from their arseholes and actually wonder what's going on in the world? Who's next to get some publicity?

Greed You Can Bank On

2011-10-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

a piece placed to advertise an upcoming show, using a protest that at its heart is about the abuse of power by the few to fill their pockets

99% agreed what a K-unt Guy