The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet
This Banksy quote certainly rings true for Chad and I!
Arriving before the red carpet was rolled last night for the Spanish Film Festival we set out to watch the HBO documentary film Banksy Does New York. We’ve all heard about this switched on Brit graffiti artist right? Even if you haven’t, you have more than likely viewed his satirical stencilled street art somewhere during your travels.
Chris Moukarbel’s documentary invited us into the Banksy hysteria that engulfed New York city during the month of October 2013 – only a month after Chad and I’s visit. The courageous political activist took to the streets each day during that month unveiling an exhibit in an unexpected location. Because graffiti is illegal, Bansky created his daily public work secretly with the NYPD hot on the Banksy team trail.
This enjoyable, upbeat documentary depicts the Big Apple’s response to Banksy’s one-month residency via user generated footage of video, instagram and tweets. We were taken across the boroughs of New York at a spazzed out pace feeling just as excited as the Banksy hunters themselves when we finally reached the crowd gathered locations after a social media tip-off. Yes – we had made it before the re-taggers, vandals and enterprising people who simply took it upon themselves to ‘steal’ Banksy’s creations. A treasure-hunt on steroids.
What we found interesting was how Banksy highlighted society’s undeniable hunger for brand and trend consumption. Banksy’s twelfth installation consisted of a hired man selling genuine Banksy monochrome stencilled canvases at a stall near Central Park for $60 each. The man’s first sale wasn’t made until after 3 in the afternoon. In fact only $420 worth of sales were taken from 3 customers for the whole day. The documentary suggested that each painting is worth $250,000 each.
Banksy’s final installation of inflatable lettering hanging from a bricked wall in Queens was only minutes away from 5 Pointz graffiti space. Banksy signed off saying “Thanks for your patience. It’s been fun. Save 5 Pointz. Bye.” The street art paradise known as the 5 Pointz precinct has been since torn down to make way for residential development.
The audio narrator from Banksy’s website comments “Banksy asserts that outside is where art should live, amongst us and rather than street art being a fad, maybe its the last 1,000 years of art history are the blip, when art came inside in service of the church and institutions. But arts rightful place is on the cave walls of our communities where it can act as a public service, provoke debate, voice concerns, forge identities. The world we live in today is run, visually at least, by traffic signs, billboards and planning committees, is that it? Don’t we want to live in a world made by art, not just decorated by it?”
Food for thought, just like the title of this post.