To celebrate Hallow'een, the British Council's New York team dressed up as the British street artist Banksy, who's spent the last few weeks in New York on a month-long residency. JJ El-Far, arts program coordinator, explains the elusive artist's transatlantic appeal.
Banksy's New York residency
It’s no secret that iconic UK street artist Banksy has been tantalising New York with his month-long residency, 'Better OUT than IN', in the Big Apple. Hordes of his fans have flocked to the far corners of the five boroughs whenever a new piece is announced on his website, or discovered by someone on Instagram or Twitter. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has only perpetuated Banksy fever by publicly denouncing his work as vandalism.
Many people in the US were first introduced to the artist through his award-winning documentary, Exit through the Gift Shop. Now, every news network and New York-based publication, as well as Forbes, Slate Magazine, and NPR, have covered the residency, each one trying to stake a small claim in the artist, provide fans with news about the whereabouts of his next piece, or explain the inverse economics of public art.
The challenges of protecting graffiti art
In an interview on NPR, Cara Tabachnick, owner of one of the buildings in the Bed-Stuy/Williamsburg area that got 'Banksied', described the challenges associated with becoming an overnight de facto gallerist. At one point, another graffiti artist attempted to cross out the painting on her wall, and 'tag' over it. The young man was apprehended and pushed off the wall, and the Banksy painting was restored.
Tabachnick said that Bansky’s work creates two types of people: those who appreciate him, and those who want to destroy him. Graffiti art evolved within hip hop culture as a way of proclaiming one’s existence. Popular among disenfranchised youth, it’s a way of saying, 'I am here, this is my city.' Denying any one artist to favour another directly opposes the very principle of tagging.
A treasure hunt in the Big Apple
In New York, the treasure hunt continues, with few pieces remaining intact in their original location. Other pieces have been painted over or re-tagged so that the original is indiscernible. Perhaps Banksy's greatest coup was his booth at Central Park on October 13, where he sold original signed canvases of his work for $60, attracting only three buyers!
New Yorkers, not appreciating being punked, have sought retribution in trying to claim his work as their own. Though Banksy discourages people from buying his work, emphasizing the importance of public art, there is still a legal grey area created when the work is tagged on private property. Collectors and opportunists have extracted many of the pieces, often times removing the doors, or cutting out chunks of wall to take with them. It’s no surprise - Banksy pieces have sold for up to $1.1 million.
Why people love secret art
It has been a long time since any artist, not to mention one who isn’t American, got this much national attention in the US. Part of the buzz can be attributed to the content and quality of the work, the social commentary, and anti-establishment messages in his pieces. Still, Banksy's most innovative and compelling attributes are his ability to maintain absolute secrecy about his identity, the temporal nature of his work, and the deliberate confusion of public and private property that his work creates.
Secrecy has become a well-known aesthetic in the UK, and is beginning to make a significant impact on American artistry as well. US audiences are looking for unique experiences, to belong within a select group, and to be privy to classified information. This explains the recent uptick in flash mobs, underground tours in closed subway tunnels, and scavenger hunt-like walking tours.
Banksy, like the UK's Secret Cinema, or the theatre company Punchdrunk, has mastered the art of Willy Wonka-esque mystery surrounding his art. In an age of information saturation, it is all the more rare and elusive, and therefore desirable, to be denied this information.