Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.
His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.
Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. According to author and graphic designer Tristan Manco and the book Home Sweet Home, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." Observers have noted that his style is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass, which maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is active today. However Banksy himself stated on his website that in all actuality he based his work on that of 3D from Massive Attack, stating, "No, I copied 3D from Massive Attack. He can actually draw."
Known for his contempt for the government in labeling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on public surfaces such as walls and even going as far as to build physical prop pieces. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti directly himself; however, art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder. Banksy's first film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie," made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released in the UK on 5 March 2010. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film.
“People are fond of using military terms to describe what they do.We call it bombing when we go out painting, when of course it's morelike entertaining the troops in a neutral zone, during peacetime in acountry without an army.”
“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.”
“Your mind is working at its best when you're being paranoid.You explore every avenue and possibility of your situationat high speed with total clarity.”
“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.”
“A recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.”
“Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for. ”
“The human race is the most stupid and unfair kind of race. A lot of the runners don't even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water.Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side.It's not surprising a lot of people have given up compeating altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk and shout abuse.What the human race needs is a lot more streakers.”
“I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. ”