BANKSY

• Banksy is an alias for a notorious (for all the wrong reasons) stencil/ graffiti artist. He has influenced a lot of my artwork and he is my biggest inspiration. His artwork are controversial due to many variables such as the way it is presented and the art itself. His theme portrays the struggles many societies go through, his purpose is to spread truth and open eyes. Most of his medium is spray paint and stencil and sometimes sculpture. It's not particularly accepted in our modern suburban days for “Graffiti” otherwise known as vandalism to be accepted. But to the most of the youth I'm sure they couldn't care less. I highly doubt that the majority of people could look at his art and appreciate the message to full extent, it's either they look at it and think it looks good or just ignore it.

• Banksy has done a series of infestation of “rats” around city areas, but I have come to the conclusion that the ironic thing is he has implied that the rats are actually the people of the city itself.

Ignorance is bliss

• The message of this particular stencil is the mentality of the everyday person, being a caveman that is. He is holding a fast food platter on his hand implying the laziness and ignorance we as humans live. It shows how a caveman would not take into consideration what happens behind the scenes to produce this meal; hence mass killings of animals, so nor would an everyday human being.

Resistance

• He has helped evolve street art into a rebellion with integrity. This stencil is his personal strike against CCTV. He has moved the CCTV to look at his stencil instead of monitoring the public.

• He goes out of his way to travel to various cities and countries to demonstrate his views to anyone that would bother. This stencil was created on the wall separating Israel and Palestine, guarded by watch towers with men holding rifles. It’s ironic that the crack on the wall shows a tropical beach which is meant to represent paradise, taking into account that both sides are at war with each other.

• This stencil was created in New Orleans which we all know was hit by Hurricane Katrina. It shows a girl carrying an umbrella that seem to be raining on her but outside the umbrella is fine. A little girl was used to symbolize how helpless the people where and the raining umbrella represents how trapped the people where.

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