Banksy Goes Bananas

Banksy's "Barely Legal" show in LA is pretty much a Pandora's Bunch of bananas in a lot of different ways. After reading quite a few reviews of the show and of course looking through all the photos of the artwork on display there, I'm pretty amused that no review I've read of the show so far has actually pronounced a solid judgement on it. Judgements of course meaning ones not regarding proper large-animal use. It seems like journalists don't want to find out that they've made themselves the subject of his latest commentary by writing their opinion too specifically. He's an artist who became (and still is becoming) famous by doing illegal things, including sneaking his own pieces into art museums and hanging them on the walls. I think the high-art world feels like he could turn on them at any second and they're having that weird confusion that happens when you're not sure whether someone's trying to compliment, chide you, or make a complete fool out of you.

To the credit of most people who write about art I'll say that Banksy has been hard to figure out since he's become more widely accepted in Art-with-a-capital-A galleries and generally places other than the street. It is also possible that he's been misunderstood because of his seriously unfocused statements in interviews and seemingly haphazard choice of social subject matter. People don't want to say why they like his new work; because it's good art in itself, or because it's actually awful and maybe he's playing the high-art crowd. The most revealing comment I've seen him make about the LA show is, "Essentially, it’s about what a horrible place the world is, how unjust and cruel and pointless life is, and ways to avoid thinking about all that."

Congratulations on being successful enough to do that and have Angelina Jolie alone drop four hundred thousand fucking dollars on your nihilism, Banksy. Who cares what your motivation is?




This is one of the only good new pieces in the show, but it's fantastic. The point I want to make is that despite some recent mediocre stuff Banksy is still the guy behind a ton of the most witty, clever, and amazingly-executed street art in the world. Be nice.


You can look at some pictures of the rest of the show on Fecal Face if you want to yell at me for talking crap about a street artist who's usually outstanding.