Banksy is a mysterious England-based street artist, vandal, political activist and film
director active since 1990s. His ironic and subversive rhymes combine dark humor with
graffiti in a decorating technique. This piece shows whether Banksy Stone Age Waiter is
an art of work of vandalism. Depending on the take above, it shows whether graffiti in
general is also a type of art. Furthermore, it discusses how one might separate art from
vandalism. It similarly, details my judgement if the work is vandalism and was created
with permission.
Banksy started his work as vandalism and it was later viewed as a kind of art. His
artwork started off as a graffiti artist main purpose is to deliver political, war critiques,
capitalism messages to the public. He later addressed other subjects such as royal family
but apparently discusses rebellion. His messages were enclosed in dark humor and satire
are likes of the Window on the West Bank barrier in Palestine. This shows that his
work was fully accepted as an artwork.
Graffiti is a practice about that different actors hold different conceptions, depending on
how it is related to other practices according to Brighenti (Rowe and Huton, 2012).
Graffiti, as a whole, is a type of small-scale cultural production. Banksy’s graffiti cannot
be generalized as a cultural production because it expresses oneself. Some viewed it as a
relationship with commerce while other viewed it as an art. Graffiti comes in many
forms from tag graffiti to artistic and stencil art. According to Antony, A. et al., 2014, it
is still not clear when and which form of graffiti are perceived as criminal. This is
because people like Banksy view it as good while some local authorities prevent and
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remove it. Few people consider his art vandalism but they cannot cheery him about him
being a true artist (Antony, A et al., 2014).
Art can be separated from vandalism. An art expresses the oneself such as graffiti while
vandalism is majorly viewed as a crime. An art is comprised of images that can be
understood by the public but vandalism contains hidden message that only the artist in
the scene can clearly understand. Street art is usually painted with permission or
commissioned. Graffiti can be word-based or figurative combined with images, whereas,
street art is image-based.
In conclusion, Banksy was successful in conveying his message through street art. He had
his unique way of passing the message ironically and in dark humor. This created
confidence in more upcoming artists of his type to address the public and criticize
corruption. Finally, as he achieved this he also expressed himself as well as his audience.
Its through his work that graffiti and vandalism became popular in the urban.
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References
Austin, D., M. and Sanders, C. (2007). Graffiti and perceptions of safety. Journal of Criminal
Justice and Popular Culture,14(4),292-316.
Anthony, A. (2014). Banksy. The artist who’s driven to the wall. The Guardian.
Moore, S. (2016). Banky’s refugee piece shows