The Melbourne Art Review

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A bit of irony in The Age this morning, an article by Janae Horton, about a Banksy having been vandalized overnight.

A stencil of a diver that Banksy painted on a wall during a visit (or tour, perhaps) to Melbourne in 2003 has been covered with silver paint with “BANKSY WOZ ERE” written over the plastic sheet that the building’s owners had screwed in place to protect the work.

Banksy’s work has been steadily increasing in value and the Age article mentions an item selling on Ebay earlier this year for $472,528 AUD.

So, who decides which piece of graffiti is a work of art and which is mere vandalism?

Is it because Banksy is now being acquired by celebrities that it is worthy of protection? I think I appreciate the sentiment of the “BANKSY WOZ ERE” mob more than the work of Banksy itself, which in my view is now more brand than a symbol of subversion, with nothing new actually being said it is just a series of quirky trendy images that have been commodified and collected.

The discovery of Banksy’s identity earlier this year is discussed by Will Self who in July posted on his blog “There’s been no confirmation yet but it looks as if the reclusive graffiti artist Banksy may have had his real identity revealed as 34-year-old ex-public schoolboy Robin Gunningham“.

Self also points out that… “The archetypal graffiti artist isn’t Banksy but the obsessive-compulsive Enzo, who has marked an estimated 250,000 train windows with his simplistic tag.”

I love the graffiti around Melbourne, I think it is beautiful and surprising. I am mesmerised by it when I see it from a train window or walking past a damp lane way. Its dynamic and alive with figures and text continually pasted and painted over themselves. It is tagged and muddied and scrubbed off and repainted and it mounds up and grows creating a palimpsest of voices and sentiment and activity. It is dynamic and ephemeral. Preserving a particular piece because its trendy or potentially worth money contradicts the nature of graffiti and in my view deflates its power.

There is wisdom in those words “BANKSY WOZ ERE” in that as his work moves from the realm of subversive street art into commodity, it has itself become something to be subverted. Banksy, as a symbol of street art, has truly left - he is in fact no longer here.