Peterson 1 chirstopher peterson Li Anna delavega eng 100 10.7.14 Banksy s Criticism They say a Picture is worth a thousand words, and if so, could you state an argument with a picture? Could an artist write an essay with their paint? Many do and some artist try to make statements with their art. The famous street artist, Banksy criticizes our society with his paintings. The themes shown in his artwork are about our addiction to social media, how fast food consumes too much of our diet and how our world is riddled with violence. Through his fame, he has brought up the issues that needed to be and has even started a following behind him. Banksy is anonymous street artist that is known for his very symbolic art. He has a very distinct style of simplistic stencil graffiti with bold edges. He often uses creative interpretations of the surroundings in his artwork to bring out different ways of thinking. Most of his art has deeper meanings than the picture itself. He has painted numerous masterpieces around the world but arose from England. He quickly gained fame and now his pieces are highly valued and displayed in prestigious museums (Banksy). He even created a following of artists that imitate his artistic style with a similar symbolistic message. Banksy has become more than just an artist, he has become a movement. Because of his anonymous statues, it s as if he is in support of his movement and in a way propitiating it by allowing and accepting the people that following him to imitate or replace him. He is being more than just an artist but an idea. He has brought his own style and his own ideas into the artistic community.
Peterson 2 One of the ideas that the Banksy image portrays in the piece Nobody Likes me is society s overuse and over dramatized view of social media. The painting was by a Banksy imitator, was done in the streets of Vancouver. It was a painting of a young child in a blue sweater with his smart phone in his hand. The kid is crying and it seems like he is throwing a fit. Above his head is the Instagram notification bubble saying 0 likes 0 comments and 0 new followers. This is pointing out the amount of attention we give to out to social media as a society by comparing us to the child throwing a fit when we don't get the number of like that we crave. It is an exaggeration that points out our flaw of paying too much attention to social media. In modern society most people have some sort of social media account, ranging from Facebook or Twitter, to Instagram or Snapchat. There is always some if not many ways we are connected to a social network. The young kid s age also of about 3 to 5 is representative of the age that most kids today are getting familiar with this kind of technology. That points out that the speed of which our society is changing to in compass the technology that surrounds our live. From this painting, it s reasonable to assume that the Banksy concept was a critic against societies social media overuse. Banksy s Fast Food Caveman is a criticism of society s heavy diet of fast food. The painting depict a Caveman walking down the street caring a tray with a hamburger, fries and a drink on it. The caveman has this very unsatisfied look on his face as well as a large bone in his other hand. This picture symbolizes how unnatural our mass consumption of fast food by comparing us to a caveman that was too lazy to hunt and picked up a number 1 instead. This picture is also saying how stupid it is to eat fast food. By having a caveman pick up the order, it is saying we are as stupid as a caveman with a bone as his most advance tool if we go and
Peterson 3 continue to buy fast food. This could also be construed as meaning that our fast food dependence is devolving us back into the stone age. By having the society compared to a caveman eating a tray of fast food, it is a metaphor saying that we are not going in the right direction. This exaggeration on our fast food consumption is a criticism on society s diet so full of hamburgers and fries. Banksy most famous work is his flower bomber. This iconic picture has made Banksy much of the fame he has now. The artwork is another stencil style graffiti painting of a activist throwing a bundle of flowers. The mono color man in the piece is wearing a backwards hat with a bandana around his face. He poses in a very threatening way as if the flowers he is about to throw is actually a bomb. The flowers he s about to throw stand out in more ways than one. The man throwing them is simply black and white, but the flowers are full of color. This is to bring to attention to the fact that he is throwing flowers rather than a bomb. Banksy brings up this contrast to help speak out against the violence that goes on in this world. He brings up an opposing view on the violence, arguing that one could accomplish more through the means of love and peace rather than violence and force. In our world to much is fought using bombs and violence and not enough is settled in a peaceful manner. Banksy s opposing view acts as a criticism to the way most things are handled today. There is too much violence but not enough love and peace. Banksy has been a very influential and bold in his works. Banksy has shown his criticism of our society through his art. He shows his beliefs of our overuse of social media, our craving of fast food, and the violent ways we settle our issues. He does all this without writing
Peterson 4 any words or letters; he made this argument all by just painting on a wall. Art has always been very moving and with a good artist you can change how people are moved.
Peterson 5 References Banksy. Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. Image Reference http://onmilwaukee.com/images/articles/mc/mcdowellbanksycostume/ mcdowellbanksycostume_fullsize_story2.jpg?20131031131736 http://www.stencilrevolution.com/photopost/2012/09/caveman-fast-food-by-banksy.jpg http://assets.vancitybuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nobodylikesyou.jpg?7ecf8a