Art, But Only If You Say So

“In contrast to government-commissioned public art, street art is illicit and subversive in nature. Therefore, most street artists, including Banksy, use pseudonyms to avoid legal prosecution for vandalism.”(Chung 27) Banksy’s street art does not focus on competing with rival artists, but focuses on engaging with a broader audience in a deeper level. He provokes his audience by deeply expressing out various social practices that helps viewers to reflect and confront certain aspects together as a community. (27) The underlying message of Banksy’s art can lead towards an active involvement of street art within the community.

Banksy is the unidentified mysterious artist that for the last twenty years has been vandalising walls across the world with imagery that is known for its ability to capture an audience with a profound and methodical phase or statement. Banksy’s work aims to confront society with the issue faced in today’s culture and challenges the viewer to justify their action. Banksy produces artwork that forces an audiences to think and question themselves and the world they live in. Although Banksy’s true identity is unknown, his artistic style is easily found in his artwork alongside his signature.

As art is constantly changing and evolving, it is important to comprehend the developments being made in how artists are expressing themselves and their ideas through their work. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand the role that artwork plays in modern political and social spheres. Art is an invaluable method of communicating different perspectives regarding significant problems in the world and their solutions. The relationship between the works of Ai Wei Wei and Banksy is significant to discuss. Both are contemporary artists who use their work to express thoughts and feelings regarding pertinent social or political issues. Image is very effective in capturing people’s attention, and both artists take advantage of this to further their opinions on various issues.

The Banksy, triumphed multi-award, and 2010 Sundance Film Festival winning documentary, “Exit through the Gift Shop” gives an interesting insight of the underground and unknown world of street art and viewing societies understanding of modern art. The documentary trails the life of a curious French immigrant Terry Guetta, who has a passion for filming everything in sight from his family to local street artists. Following these street artists such as Shepherd Fairey and eventually Banksy himself around for most his time, he developed an interest in the art scene. As a full time accomplice, Terry Guetta later develops into this premature artist by using and being inspired by the famous art of others. The documentary early on sparks the questions of what is art and who poses the authority to define good art?

Banksy is a famous- yet anonymous- is an example of a street artist who uses stencils to portray his urban art across the streets of London. His style of work is usually dominated with black and white and sometimes complimented with a splash of colour. This allows the viewer to understand the concept of his work much better as they realise the main focus of the piece. His art works usually involve a political message and is sometimes reinforced humorously. For instance, the image on the left raises awareness of the increasing interest and obsession and technology in younger generations. It suggests a scary future- if not already a reality- that the source of happiness will come from the ‘no. of likes’ we receive on our social media pages.

Graffiti is a way to show a passion of an artistic form. “In a recent interview, the artist and political activist known as Bansky observed: “I’ve learned from experience that a painting isn’t finished when you put down your brush – that’s when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and

Art is one of the earliest forms of creative expression. From the prehistoric cave paintings of our Palaeolithic ancestors to the provocative graffiti of contemporary artists like the UK's elusive 'Banksy', art has given people a means by which to escape the, often harsh, realities of their everyday lives since time in memoriam. Some pick up the paintbrush in an effort to claim a sense of power and use it as a way to highlight the injustices of their environment; others use it as means to escape the relentless grind of drug abuse, mental illness and economic instability.

Professional art and artists have been involved in political movements throughout the modern era, fusing aesthetics and politics, art and propaganda. Yet this is not an endorsement of explicitly political "action" art. Contrarily, it is art without agenda that inspires new perspectives on existing problems and challenges the status quo by reflecting society back on itself. This is

The crossing of art and politics is an interesting one, and can be inspiring, or contentious, even discreditable.

Definition. There exists a cornucopia of terminology when it comes to activism realized through the arts. Among them are: “social practice” (which circumvents the method of engagement); “socially engaged art”; “arts activism”; “social justice art”; “community-based art”; etc. (Dewhurst, 2010; Helguera, 2011). Although many of these terms can be used interchangeably, for the sake of consistency this paper will refer to this practice as “socially engaged arts,” or SEA. As Dewhurst aptly outlines, “Despite these various names, this work often shares a commitment to create art that draws attention to, mobilizes action towards, or attempts to intervene in systems of inequality or injustice” (2010, p.1). Platt (2010) places singular emphasis on the artist who is “committed to engaging contemporary political issues…convinced of the urgent necessity to use the power of art…to make visible what is kept invisible…” (p. xiv). The work of the participants of SEA is one half to a whole for creating arts, the other half being the audience participation and feedback. As Shank (2004) alleges, the two main strategies for presenting SEA to audiences are targeting powerful organizations and constituents, or powerless organizations and constituents (p. 539). Platt’s vision of the lone artist is better utilized for global exposure with powerful audiences to react to injustices made visible, however this paper will focus primarily on engaging audiences who are marginalized.

Art is a persons’ opinion. The definition of art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. There is no real definition for what is beautiful or appealing to the human eye. Banksy is said to be an artist by some and a graffiti lawbreaker by others. Basically, it is up to the person to define Banksy as someone who is doing the right thing verses doing the wrong thing. Banksy creates his graffiti pictures to make a stand for what he believes is the right way to look at controversial issues. Some people may not like Banksy’s graffiti because they do not have the same views as him. Some people might

The art of graffiti writing is a creative method of communicating with other graffitists and the public. They use it to express their identity, ideas, creativity, and feelings. Graffitists value this type of communication because of its links to people regardless of lingual, cultural, and racial differences in a way that nothing else can. Some graffitists do and view their art as a statement against political and economic order. Some see themselves as revolutionaries rebelling against the established art market or gallery system that only includes art that curators and art historians deem valuable. Some graffitists view their work as a statement against Western ideas of capitalism. Whatever the reasons are, they do their work with a purpose, with imagination, and creative skill to express emotion, which is what Oxford Dictionary deems as art. In addition, graffiti art is not a spontaneous act like tagging in the form of fancy scribble. The completion of an art piece involves a great deal of imagination, planning, and effort.

I have always loved art, and wanted to read about it from its pros to cons, one of the arts are graffiti art. Graffiti art is something special, the way it contains meaning, message or a personal confession that merges with colors and drawings, all over the way to destruction of others property and cause environmental and social problems, this research will examine the rise of graffiti, the legal and political power, social control, and writers and painters resistance to them and explores the resistance against graffiti.

I believe there are two ways of looking at a situation; you can focus on the bad or choose to see the good. Street art is a topic that falls under one of those situations. Many people associate street art with gangs, vandalism, violence, and other controversial topics. Being realistic, it is understandable why society may have this opinion of street art, but it also serves many other significant purposes. Street art can be used as a medium to voice political and social opinions of a community, and also spread awareness. Banksy, an anonymous street artist, is one of the most controversial street artist in the world due to his intriguing and eloquent street art. He is known for crossing boundaries between art, philosophy, politics, sociology, humor and narcissism. His impactful art has appeared in America,Australia, Canada, England, France, Israel, Jamaica and Palestine. Many of Banksy’s pieces, such as Reverse Pat Down, Comment Heart Request, Irony, and Graffiti is a Crime have expressed and drawn attention to political and social issues

When you look upon my walls, you are sure to find art. When you walk down the street, you are sure to find art. Everywhere you look and everywhere you go there is art, but art is more than pictures hanging upon a wall and is more than the paintings that painter John Berger references in his essay “Ways of Seeing”. Art is not one definable thing, but is of many origins and form. Paintings are art, poetry is art, music is art and so much more. There is simply no way to avoid it. Art has an impact on all of us whether we admit it or not, whether it be posters hanging on our walls or music playing in the background. However, in most of our lives, the art we see and experience is merely a reproduction of an original. Most Americans are part of the middle class and thus cannot afford original pieces of artwork, or afford to witness everything live on a normal basis. Without reproductions many of us would not experience what we know as art, as the original is often out of reach and thus reproductions were born to fill that gap. Reproductions of art provide opportunities and the chance to experience in some way the art that is created, and yet they lack the full intensity of the experience and the value that comes with the original or first-hand experience.