Banksy

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Kim Trager

When I was a child, London was all about double decked busses, Bobbies and red telephone boxes. When I became a teenager and gained more knowledge about the capital the interest was towards all the clubs which apparently were spread around the capital. When I actually moved to London, there was something completely different which caught my eye.

I came to London in 2005 when the hype around the graffiti artist "Banksy" was on its highest. I still remember walking to Tesco in Bethnal Green when my eye caught one of his stencils, depicting a rat holding a ghetto blaster. I had to turn around to go home and get my camera and take pictures of this little hidden gem on the side of a corner shop. My discovery of Banksy later led to my own adventures with spray cans.

Stencilling has existed for thousands of years Ð'- and origins back to cave paintings produced 22.000 years ago where hand silhouettes were produced by blowing paint around a hand placed on a surface. The technique has been used around the globe from the Chinese to the Egyptian - using it to decorate silk with Buddha figures - to cover the inside of pyramids. It has been used in the 30's to make exclusive limited art deco posters and in the 60's, celebrated pop artist Andy Warhol used stencils to make some of his most iconic work. 1970's Basques used Stencils to make protest pictures on walls against General Franco's fascist regime.

Today, stencilling has made artists like Banksy art celebrities. Alongside Damian Hirst and Tracy Emin, Banksy sell his stencils in galleries and action houses for enormous sums of money.

If you look through Banksy's work you recognise that most of his work depicts his view on media, authorities and society. I've chosen 2 pictures. One picture showing a rat with a camera and another picture with a rat holding a brush.

The stencil with the rat holding a camera is photographed in 2005 in front of the Ritz hotel in Piccadilly.

The rat Ð'- at first glance Ð'- looks like a tourist visiting the capital centre. Taking pictures of attractions. Do you look more carefully it seems like the rat crams the camera with big hands - like a paparazzi - hiding behind a telephone box, looking slightly nervous, screwing the one eye against the sun - on the lookout for the next celebrity Ð'- which have become today's attractions - coming out from the Ritz hotel. It's almost like a thief hiding before a victim passes by.

On rats Banksy writes in his book "Banksy Wall and Piece (2006)" p. 97

They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quit desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees.

If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model.

Paparazzo's are like rats, they exist without permission, they are hated and hunted, they live in quit desperation amongst moral filth. They may not be capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees, but they can bring celebrities lives to their knees Ð'- referring to the tragic event of the dead of Princes Diana and Dodi al Fayed in Paris.

A rat lives because people throw out waste Ð'- paparazzo's lives because people throw out money on tabloid magazines, with pictures of celebrities as main attraction.

The big strong hand which holds the camera, minds me of some of the old Soviet propaganda posters from the 2nd world war. A time when the government had total control over the media. Everything was one way communication. Like the tabloids today, telling us how to live, how to look and what to like.

As well as portray society, and media Banksy also likes to question authorities. Banging your head against a brick wall (2001) P. 10

My main problem with cops is that they do what they're told. They say "Sorry mate, I'm just doing my job" all the fucking time. And every time someone says "if it was down to me it would be ok, but im following orders" a little bit insides of you dies. If you say it as often as cops do then there isn't much left.

Some time I feel like an inside-out policeman. I quess I do believe some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. But then some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better-looking place.

Another way of using the rat as a symbol, do we see in my second chosen picture - a mural showing a little black/white rat which has plashed coloured paint onto a grey dull wall in Mexico. Here he again, plays with the idea that the rat is the lowest of all, but eventually can bring a whole country to its knees.

The rat is depicted as the unwanted part of the population - the poor uncoloured people and the less fortunate. The little sad rat Ð'- in black and white Ð'- stands with it's little brush. Even though it's small in size it has still managed to get up and paint higher than triple its own height. And leave coloured marks Ð'- onto a grey world. It looks like the rat has superpowers. Like superman. It may look as an insignificant little character, but it's able to leave big coloured marks.

For his next show, "Crude Oils," Banksy stocked a Notting Hill gallery with two hundred free-roaming rats. Rodents are a favorite motif. "Like most people, I have a fantasy that all the little powerless losers will gang up together," Banksy wrote in "Existentialism." "That all the vermin will get some good equipment and then the underground will go over ground and tear this city apart."

(Lauren Collins, 2007)

The rat could also be a symbol of the homeless and poor people who just need to stick together against politicians and other dull and grey people sitting behind their desks Ð'- like the wall Ð'- doing nothing.

The rat could also be a reference to the artist as he pictures himself. Always hiding, only coming out in the night. Try to be small and insignificant Ð'- to blend in with the environment for not to be detected. He [Banksy] might be small and just come from Bristol, but give him a spray can and you will see what he is capable of. For instance a mural under the tunnel in Rivington st. he [Banksy] has written Ð'Ò'Speak softly Ð'- but carry a big