Banksy is a battleground for the classes

BanksyIt seems that the London design fraternity is still going apoplectic over the identity of Banksy. It’s been a whole two weeks since the Daily Mail named Robin Gunningham as the man behind Banksy.

Banksy wants to stay anonymous for his own reasons. Perhaps it’s because he is a former ex-public schoolboy brat; a product of the middle-class. Or maybe it’s because he believes that his art ought to speak for itself and not be about the man. More likely, he knows that the mystique of the Banksy legend will evapourate when the big reveal happens. To transform this into the geek arena, how did you feel when you heard that Fake Steve Jobs was actually Dan Lyons?

The nub of the tale is that this is really about the British class system. It’s a war between the street art proletariat and the middle-class. Banksy’s art is street theatre. Splashes of fun on grim building-fronts. Banksy is someone that graffiti artists would love to call one of their own. He’s a graffiti animator with a dark sense of fun. Mutterings that he might hail from a well-heeled family don’t sit well either with the graffiti gang or with the middle-classed Art School indies.

The streets see Banksy as an oddity. And he is. He’s just as comfortable selling the Jolie-Pitts pieces worth over €1.3m as he is stenciling on the back of a building in East London. Call it marching to the beat of his own drum, viral marketing guerrilla-stylee or attempting to gild his reputation with a thin film of urban cred. Banksy mixes it up.

By encroaching on the traditional stomping ground of graffiti-makers using their materials and canvas and selling to the hoi-polloi, Banksy is a incendiary point between the street and the SUVed. And if he does emerge as a member of the middle-class, what does it say about this hallowed slice of society that he’d rather stay anonymous than publicly acknowledge his socio-economic tribe?

Ah, societal conflict inside societal conflict. Anonymity is Banksy’s best friend. Banksy just is. And he likes it that way.

Banksy Photo owned by unusualimage (cc)

August 3rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm • Filed in Design



Comments

2 Comments to “Banksy is a battleground for the classes”

  1. Sinéad Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    I’ve always liked the mystery of Banksy. I’d prefer it was kept that way. As long as he is kept a secret, he will continue to be able to do funny shit like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharl/sets/72157594266743665/ and this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4563751.stm



  2. Alexia Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am

    He’s got such a delicious sense of humour, sometimes. Can’t wait to see my first one of his pieces in the flesh.



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