Banksy in Brazil

Unless you have spent the last 30 years with your head buried in a pint (you are English) or in a bowl of heavily sweetened, melted fudge (Brazilian, naturally), you must be familiar with the works of the anonymous graffiti artist (vandal?), Banksy.



Banksy in Brazil

Graffiti is plural; the singular is graffito. The learning curve continues…

Despite holding the view that people who deface trains, walls and buildings (basically, anything that I have to look at and which offends me) should be shot on sight as a warning to other would-be spotty, oik “yoof” artists, I do find his work quite interesting and thought-provoking. This does not show me in a particularly positive light according to Charlie Brooker who said: “...his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots.”

While much of Banksy's work relies on the visual, he has been known to put forward his views in various books, in this case, ‘Wall and Piece’ where he provides a summary of people who should be shot:

“Fascist thugs, religious fundamentalists… and people who write lists telling you who should be shot…”

Uh oh!

I certainly do not have grounds to complain about his 2003 exhibition “Turf War” where he painted on animals. Once, while under the influence of a very persuasive bottle of Jim Beam, I coloured in a dog belonging to the owners of a house I was looking after. While the RSPCA declared the conditions of “Turf War” suitable for the animals, I am ashamed to say no such approval was given to my early artistic scratchings. In my defence, I was young and the dog emerged without any permanent damage or psychological scarring. I cannot say the same for the owners of the house as we had also labelled the entire contents of their kitchen. Still, they shouldn’t have had any difficulty identifying the fridge after we left.

While a poster of Banksy’s fake £10 notes was sold at Bonham’s for £24 000, the dog could not be given away.

“We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.”

            Banksy, "Wall and Piece"

Which brings me to the point of this story. I took this photograph of a work by Banksy* during my Brazil holiday and am selling copies of the image. Purchase requests by way of the comments page please.

* Please note that this particular image is by Banksy Liebowitz, my second cousin.