# Banksy's Bristol: Home Sweet Home



## bristol_citizen (Oct 29, 2007)

New book coming soon. Further stuff on Flickr and Myspace. 

There's some nice-looking photos in there even if it does reek of cash-in...


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## bouncer_the_dog (Oct 29, 2007)

Banksy is a sell out. Bring on the cleaning equipment IMO


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

Yeah, cash in, Banksy industry etc etc

But I'm a sucker for books about Bristol and it'll bring back memories of some of his lost pieces. Hope there's pics of 'there's all this noise...' on Welsh Back and the Sevier Street mural.

It's my birthday soon 

Can't believe the prices Existencilism and Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall fetch though


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

bouncer_the_dog said:
			
		

> Banksy is a sell out. Bring on the cleaning equipment IMO


no, Banksy is a clever fucker who's managed to extract lots of money from people with too much cash who want to look a bit alternative. Applause from here, he's in the fine tradition of Bristolians blagging it


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## wiskey (Oct 29, 2007)

JTG said:
			
		

> It's my birthday soon



careful you'll end up with 15 copies.


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## bouncer_the_dog (Oct 29, 2007)

I wouldn't be surprised if Banksy is more than one person, some of which are not from Bristol. He has done well by keeping his edgy underground appearance (or brand) and selling his work for hundreds of thousands of pounds via the establishment.


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

bouncer_the_dog said:
			
		

> I wouldn't be surprised if Banksy is more than one person, some of which are not from Bristol. He has done well by keeping his edgy underground appearance (or brand) and selling his work for hundreds of thousands of pounds via the establishment.



no, he's one person. I know people who know him


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## bouncer_the_dog (Oct 29, 2007)

JTG said:
			
		

> no, he's one person. I know people who know him


 Everyone says that.


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

wiskey said:
			
		

> careful you'll end up with 15 copies.


if there are that many people who love me I'll be happy anyway

I can hoard them all and sell them for a fortune in a few years


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

bouncer_the_dog said:
			
		

> Everyone says that.


well in my case it's true.

he's one person, he comes from Westbury-on-Trym, he's been spraying around Bristol for years before he went anywhere else and he's fooled daft london types into paying him lots of money for plenty of old rope

Bristol's not so big that word doesn't get around about people like him so I think we'd know if there was anything odd about his identity.

more power to him


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## bouncer_the_dog (Oct 29, 2007)

Can we have a name and photo plz.


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

no

I am right though


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## butchersapron (Oct 29, 2007)

Yes, you are.


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

do you know anyone who knows Banksy then?


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## butchersapron (Oct 29, 2007)

Never heard of the bloke


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## JTG (Oct 29, 2007)

must be some sort of collective hallucination


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## Geri (Oct 29, 2007)

I don't know him. Do I get a prize?


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## kerb (Oct 31, 2007)

JTG said:
			
		

> Can't believe the prices Existencilism and Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall fetch though



Really? I got them both. Paid a fiver each iirc


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## Kid_Eternity (Oct 31, 2007)

People complain if an artist is good but gets no exposure, they then complain when they get the exposure they deserve...I like his work and would rather see news stories about him than damien fucking hirst.


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## keybored (Oct 31, 2007)

JTG said:
			
		

> he's one person, he comes from Westbury-on-Trym



She's two people. The other one's from Yate.


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## xenon (Oct 31, 2007)

I don't know Banksy but I nearly met Lewis the Barren once.


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## djbombscare (Oct 31, 2007)

bouncer_the_dog said:
			
		

> Banksy is a sell out. Bring on the cleaning equipment IMO



I aggree with ya I went in Waterstones tother daywhile the fizz got her hair cut and there's whole fucking section of poncey art based coffee table reading crap based solely on BANKSY, 

probably aimed at the Clfiton massive who want to do a thesis on it or want to be down wit da yoof. Now I love Banksy's stuff its good, we even have a print of one. but I think he's become what he was against in the first place and has become part of the accepted middle class. 

Maybe he's sold out, maybe he's wrong kid turned good, maybe the middle classes and politicians accepting what he does is perhaps their way of control and saying your NOT going to fuck up the establishment becasue we accept what it is you do. . . .I dunno . . .I aint Banksy.

However I do know that in areas in Bristol, inner cities, areas of social depravation,  or in fact just any wall in the world there is cleverer, more politcal, bigger and better graffiti than what Banksy does. 

But becuase it aint a pices of "Banksy Stencilled Street Art" it just doesn't get the coverage and get removed.

I never did street art, I did and do graffiti. So what does Banksy do ?


I didnt care if it got removed, 

It gave me a new blank canvas


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## JTG (Oct 31, 2007)

I think the phrase 'sell out' is poorly defined bollocks used as a handy insult for someone who becomes successful but which the people who use it don't actually know the meaning of.

He does mildly amusing art n that. Not his fault if other people don't get the recognition they deserve (and probably don't want anyway).


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## Indemand (Nov 3, 2007)

I'm pretty sure Banksy is one person, arbeit supported by a team I imagine.

Was chatting in person to Kelzo (http://www.exhulme.co.uk/) a couple of months ago at a school where he was doing a grafiti wall with kids...he said he's met banksy a few times, and that it is one person.

could have been talking bollocks to keep the legend alive mind you.

Also, manage to get a sprayed tag out of him, which was nice. he was a bit worried we were gonna e-bay em


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## xenon (Nov 3, 2007)

Part of an old interview with Banksy was played on Radio 4, PM program last week. Think it was Tuesday's? This was recorded around the time he did the Police and pig thing in East London somewhere. 

he was just talking about the immediacy of graffiti and his mum's toiling over the Sunday roast.


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## djbombscare (Nov 3, 2007)

JTG said:
			
		

> I think the phrase 'sell out' is poorly defined bollocks used as a handy insult for someone who becomes successful but which the people who use it don't actually know the meaning of.
> 
> He does mildly amusing art n that. Not his fault if other people don't get the recognition they deserve (and probably don't want anyway).



Mate I've got to disaggree. It all depends on where you sit. Yes to a graffer what he has done is sold out, If whats he's about is putting art on the street for the masses to see for free then why have an exhibition and sell em for a lot of cash. Those aint gonna be seen so its kind of smacks of being a sell out. On another point if its about being political or anti-establishment, being accepted by the establishment for either of the reasons I said above, would suggest that you've sold out to become accepted. Therse also the fact that bristol city wont remove banksy art, anyone elses will be removed. does that say fuck you to the elected gestapo or does it say Im accepted. If you are against them why would you want to be, you cant say its getting to them from the inside cos no-one knows who banksy is.

its all a big mix of different messages to me and I just dunno how I feel wether he is a sell out or not. 

I like his stuff I think is great. But looking at the facts its now mass appeal, the latest fad, coffe table reading and as I said to yoru lfat mate last night I wonder how far away we are form a line of bansky styled wallpaper in Ikea.

He makes money from it, with books, prints etc. A mans gotta eat. But is that making money cleverly from stencilled vandalism and being a modern day Robin Hood, or selling out and chasing a fast buck.

And no-one knows who he is. . .except the people who his website with, the ones who pay him the royalties on the books etc etc etc. if they wanted to those in power could find out who he is. wHy haven't they. Perhasp they're just no bothered but if I got caught doing a burn somewhere I'd get knicked and they just prosecuted some dude in Bristol. I cant remember his name

Mate theres enough info to suggest sell out. So people are gonna shout it. 

It doesn't mean they are stupid ignorant or ill informed. Its just their reaction to the info they have. 

Me I'm torn, something yells sell out to me as much as when a band sell there music to a company to go on a advert after bleating on about not doing it for money but doing it for love for years.

and yet something says good job you've made it to a level no-one has taken graffiti before and its now being looked on as street art. Fucking wicked job and the way to take it to the next levels. It will bring in new blood etc etc etc. 

I just dont know, I have no idea. I dont know Banksy, and I think thats the point innit. 

When something is this wrong and this right at the same time, when its that far out there, and yet acceptable to the mainstream, they are done in a few prominant politcal positions, placed for maximum effect and impact, and yet still be overlooked and missed, and although its street art it fits on every coffee table on the land. . .

when somethings that fucking clever, its deserves to be everything its lives to be.


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## JTG (Nov 3, 2007)

you can only sell out if you were sold in in the first place. personally I doubt he ever was


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## djbombscare (Nov 4, 2007)

Mate I dont understand sold in.


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## Paul Russell (Nov 4, 2007)

I think he's reached the point where he's so popular that he's become uncool.

I generally like his stuff, it's just funny and cheers the place up.

Some of it comes over as too obvious and some of the "political" stuff is a bit Rik off the Young Ones. The best stuff is just funny reality hacking.

If I was a graffiti artist who'd spent years doing it just for the thrill, I wouldn't complain if Angelina Jolie et al. starting buying it for stupid prices.


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## Pavlik (Nov 5, 2007)

The one he did in glastonbury town in June is getting more and more fucked day by day.People keep peeling bits off and spraying stuff around it.
If it had been on the wall of my house I'd have hired a stonecutter and had it in a frame before you could say 'mines a bottle of champers thankyou very much'.


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