I haven't seen the film, and I suspect much of it is just clever
marketing to promote the artist(s) -- though heaven knows that they need
to earn a living somehow and painting on walls in the middle of the
night doesn't pay directly.
However I think that Banksy's work is smart commentary on modern urban
conditions, and I've enjoyed seeing photos of it.
But "tagging", well that's just the human equivalent of dogs peeing on
hydrants and posts to mark territory. It's just stupid, mindless
wankery. Look everybody, I can draw a signature doodle on this sign
with my black magic marker! W00t!! Yeah, right. Get off my frickkin
lawn, kid.
And the bulk of graffiti of the sort you see below overpasses or on
cement walls is a kind of folksy doodling in the vein of what bored
schoolkids do in their textbooks. Once in a while you encounter real
graffiti art that took effort by someone with talent. But not as a rule.
I shoot graffiti scrawls from time to time in a faint homage to Aaron
Siskind's work. Here's one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruce_m_walker/3494949280/lightbox/
-bmw
On 11-08-17 4:39 PM, Ann Sanfedele wrote:
I watched about 5 minutes - maybe less - of Exit... before I took it out
of the DVD player and gave it back to my neighbor who leant it to me.
I don't know what progress is being made on the film that is as much
about skate boarders as graffiti artists that some of my photos from
the 70's are in - I'm soured on the whole thing having never gotten paid
for the photos but not being able to bring myself to nag the director
who said he would remove the photos from his pre finished trailer on
line if I wished as he couldnt pay me yet and had forgotten he had not
paid. Too tough the times to lose it over that... write it off to
experience ... but..
This new film is also rather nostalgic about the tagging and
glorifying it a bit, where as I was always rather pointing and gagging
or laughing
when I photographed it... though sometimes the mess becomes something
of more interest.... but I have to say none of it ever appealed to me
as "art" as a rule.
Interestingly, the guy how is working on the new documentary never
saw "Exit.." in fact, I'm not sure he had even heard of it.
Thanks for pointing to the article...
ann
On 8/17/2011 14:02, Bob W wrote:
[...]
Chalk on sidewalks is more or less encouraged or at least approved of,
tho. And in my neighborhood there is a lot of art that has been put
on buildings with the blessing of the building owners or even paid for
by them.
ann
I'm gobsmacked sometimes at how gullible people are when it comes to
art,
and street 'art' in particular. I half-watched a documentary on TV
the other
day called "Exit through the gift shop", which is about Banksy and some
character he collaborated with in San Francisco. As I say, I was only
half
watching it, so I may have some of this wrong. Banksy is ok, fairly
original
and quite witty with a distinct style of his own, so all credit to
him, but
his collaborator started churning out all sorts of sub-Banksyan shite
on an
industrial scale, and people were lapping it up. Frankly if they
can't tell
shite from shinola I guess they deserve to be ripped off.
<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7041650.ece>
B
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