Banksy!!!

To be honest I'd never heard of Banksy before I stumbled across a reference to the artist on a random website. Intrigued I went to his website. For those who may not of heard of him, Banksy is an artist who specializes in what has variously been called "terrorist art", "guerilla art" or plain old "graffiti art". He came to worldwide fame through his penchant of walking into museums and putting up his own works - often the museum authorities only learn about it after Banksy announces it on his website. As this article describes, these escapades include setting up a fake display of a rock with a cave painting of a prehistoric hunter with a shopping trolley in the British Museum, as well as a fake stuffed rat dressed like a rapper in the Natural History Museum.

But Banksy's best work has been his graffiti art (of which there are splendid examples on his website). In particular his culture jamming approach often has a strong political slant. Several of his works appeared on the Palestinian side of the controversial West Bank barrier that was built by Israel despite the protests of Palestinians who were cut off from their workplaces, and fields. More recently a life-size replica of a Guantanomo Bay detainee, complete with hood and orange jump-suit was left inside a Disney-Land roller-coaster ride, a reminder of the plight of those being held there without recourse to due judicial process.

I've always found the culture-jamming approach to art interesting and provocative, and its political engagement exciting. Alas, the approach is now all too often appropriated by marketing campaigns for the very brand-labels it often seeks to undermine (Banksy was reportedly offered a huge contract by Nike which he declined).

On the topic of culture-jamming, if you went to Asma's site, you may have noticed some of her earlier work has some of the elements of protest against mass consumerism - the ominous armies of Ronald MacDonalds swarming over Karachi's landmarks are quiet chilling. Great stuff!

IZ