GRAFFITI ART

BANKSY
https://www.theguardian.com/art
Girl With Balloon anddesign/2017/jul/26/banksy-
National Theatre 2004. balloon-girl-hay-wain-favourite-
uk-work-of-art-constable-poll-
nation.

Key Information:
The most salient object in this piece is the red, heart-shaped balloon that is flying away from the little girl. The little girl, in a
play dress, is watching her balloon get carried away by the wind with one arm outstretched. Similar to the situation in UP, her
dream, the heart balloon is flying away. Since she is little, her present dream might be to run along the field with her red, heart-
shaped balloon. Because Banksys art is so open to interpretation, an adult might read it as love lost. However, to the right of the
stencil is a simple saying anchors the art: THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. Similar to labels attached to art in a museum setup, the
text offers a wider context for the object or images on display (Rose, 2007). The balloon and the text are of the same height,
both equally important. The connection between the stencil and the text can be made as one whole art piece.
The wall is worn, dirty, and stained. There is a dual nature of the wall that is also used as Banksys canvass. The wall serves as
part of a working building that provides privacy and a clear boundary of the outside vs. inside working-world. Without the wall,
the building is left with an open space. Banksy uses the wall as a gallery in which he paints art, allowing others to peruse freely.
In this case, readers are allowed to interact with his art, unlike in a museum. The pavement is unkempt, seen by the unleveled
sidewalk and littered cigarette buds. Where the sidewalk meets the wall, there is grass that Banksy incorporates in his drawing
having the girl stand on nature as opposed to man-made cement. These are all reminders of the socially accepted ways in which
man creates the use of space. Why is a man-made toxic power plant considered ok, yet man-made graffiti considered vandalism?
Are they not both created by a person or group of persons? Are they not used in interaction of daily life? We use a building, we
walk past a building; however, when walk past art, we become a part of the art. Is that not as important?

Banksy buffed the wall where the girl is stenciled in so that her dark silhouette contrasts the cleaned, whiteness of the wall. On
the right where the writing stands, Banksy uses white lettering against the natural grime of the wall. The two stencils are
separated by an intentional crack in that gives way to a power socket. Despite the integration of the art, the power socket pulls
back imagination into the reality. We, as readers, are grounded in rules and laws in which we abide because they power society.
https://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/jle/balloon.html.

Main Features
- The little girls dream was to fly away
- Banksys work was an inspiration to adults as they could get a different interpretation which was love being
broken or lost
- There is a dual nature of the wall that is also used as Banksys canvas
- Banksy buffed the wall so the girls dark silhouette stands out behind the background
- The balloon and text are the same height which shows that they are equally on the same level
- The audience can interact with Banskys work as it is harder in a museum
- Banksy uses the pavement to do his drawings which creates space as this is the way he is socially accepted
- Man graffiti was considered as vandalism and had different thoughts if people or group of people created it.
If Graffiti Changed Anything-
It Would Be Illegal
April 2011.

http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/20

Key Information:
11/04/26/banksy-street-art-
clipstone-street-fitzrovia/.

This is the second large work by Banksy to have appeared in Fitzrovia and in the part of the
neighbourhood under the authority of Westminster City Council. A previous artwork One
Nation Under CCTV was removed at the insistence of the Council after it decided it that it
shouldnt have been created without planning permission.

https://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2011/04/25/banksy-graffiti-fitzrovia/.

Banksys If Graffiti Changed Anything first appeared in Fitzrovia, central London, in April, 2011. The quote ends with it would
be illegal. The graffiti art is painted in bright red, the letters dripping paint. Banksys signature rat is stenciled in black and
white at the bottom of the piece, appearing to stand on a ledge. His left paw is covered with the same bright red paint, and he
has left a paw print on the wall where he stands, looking over his shoulder at his words of wisdom.

https://www.stencilrevolution.com/banksy-art-prints/if-graffiti-changed-anything/.

A local security guard confirmed it had arrived between midnight and sometime in the early hours of Monday
morning. The artwork was already getting the attention of passers by and several groups of people had already been
to photograph it.
The corner of Clipstone and Cleveland Streets in Fitzrovia.
The artwork is on a wall on the corner of Clipstone Street and Cleveland Street at the end of a row of shops and next
to the BT Tower.

https://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2011/04/25/banksy-graffiti-fitzrovia/.

Banksy is the most well-known graffiti artist in the world, even though he has never revealed his true identity. Quirky
and political, his work has satirised oppression in Palestine, hypocrisy in politics and capitalist greed in London.

His spray-painted images are illegal but still create newspaper headlines and sell for six figure sums in galleries
around the world. How has the world's most famous vandal become the darling of the art scene?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zytpn39.

Main Features
- This image first appeared in London in April 2011
- Previous work was removed away from the wall as there was no permission from the
council to do so
- Banksys artwork gets a lot of attention especially as people come to take pictures of his
work, also his work evolved around politics and capitalist greed in London.
- Banksys spray paint images are illegal but he still manages to get himself in the top of the
newspaper headlines
- Banksy has never revealed his true identity to anyone he has always kept it anonymous.
 http://jonreiss.com/2013/07/this-is-
not-a-game-an-interview-with-lady-
pink-guest-post/.

The Graffiti Lounge

1980

Lady Pink
Key Information:
From 1980-1995 and even in 1981 Id been exhibiting galleries and doing projects, and travelling
the world doing all kinds of things as a teenager.
Im not street artist. A street artist is a person who goes around doing illegal stuff in the
street. I dont do that and never have. Ive had artwork in the street but thats public
artwork and its called murals and its done with permission, mostly funded, and it has
nothing to do with street art.

A street artist is a person whos charged for vandalism, for destroying somebody elses
property, but a street artist works in different mediums. They do not specialize in fonts
and letters and names, and style, and spray paint the way we do. They work in different
mediums with everything from chalk and paint and rubber bands and soldering wood
and glass and metal, and anything goes. Whatever medium they can imagine, and they
get arresting for knitting and its so much fun. You cant help but admire their spirits
because were cut from the same cloth, but they dont have the same kind of community-
the kind of support system that graffiti writers have. They are more isolated and they
dont run in groups and crews.

And again, the different medium thing is the biggest difference. We specialize and spend
years developing style and letters, and hoping to apply this on some sort of train or bus
that moves and rolls, and the last alternative is to paint it on a wall. Most strive to do it
illegally, to put up their name and get fame that way. Street artists, theyre just kooky
and crazy and they do the most bizarre stuff, and the fact we can all get arrested and
charged for vandalism makes us similar.

http://jonreiss.com/2013/07/this-is-not-a-game-an-interview-with-lady-pink-guest-post/.

Main Features
- Since 1980-1995 and 1981 Lady Pink took an interest in looking at galleries and doing projects

- Lady Pink sees her self as murals artist, this type of artist does street art with
permission to do so which is also funded for
- Lady Pink didnt see herself as a street artist because they do art work illegally
and charged for vandalism.
 http://jonreiss.com/2013/07/this-is-
not-a-game-an-interview-with-lady-
pink-guest-post/.

Welling Court 2012

Key Information:

While her attitude may have seemed political, she says her graffiti was not. "The basic statement we
were trying to make was to say, `I'm here, look at me, I'm not going to be lost in the multitudes of
millions of New York City.' The graffiti was the basic `Kilroy Was Here' cry of the '50s and it was my way
of screaming it."

But when classes were over and night fell, the boys in the school set off to spray-paint graffiti on the
urban landscape. Fabara was not invited but went anyway. "I picked up a very tough street persona, like
a front, that had an extremely big mouth," she says. "I was a feminist without ever having heard the
word."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-09-20/features/9309200022_1_paintings-spray-graffiti.

LP: I dont teach them graffiti or street art. I teach them murals. I focus specifically on the artwork.
I dont teach them spray paint or none of that. I mostly work with students of Frank Sinatra school
of the arts as I said, and these are art students who can already draw and paint. I work from that
talent. I dont ever teach them graffiti and some of those kids have whispered to me- can you take
me to some wall, and I say absolutely not. Were not going anywhere illegal and thats out of the
question.

Thats outside of my curriculum. I teach murals and thats hard enough- how to get your little
design on a wall, its a challenge. I dont really practice my lettering to tell you the truth. I dont
worry about any of that. When I get commissioned for- its called corporate graffiti and its graffiti
thats styled and for customers and what not- I outsource the lettering to my husband and other
guys who work with lettering and Im more illustrational and I dont keep up with the graffiti as
much. My husband is more of a historian and archivist of the changing styles and personalities and
politics. http://jonreiss.com/2013/07/this-is-not-a-game-an-interview-with-lady-pink-guest-post/.

Main Features
- Lady Pink works with students teaching them murals

- When often commissioned for Lady Pink corporated graffiti; this is graffiti which is styled for already

- Graffiti is still a passion for her but she doesnt keep up with it much as Illustration had caught her attention
more

- Graffiti in the 50s was seen as the basic Kilroy Was Here and this was her way of expressing it in New York

- Throughout Lady Pinks childhood she would go off with a group of boys after school and spray paint graffiti.