Wednesday January 2nd, 2008

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a sexy new year.

Let's get to it. Banksy at Vanina Holasek:

So that was the gist of the show. It was a three level space that miraculously led people to walk peacefully in line around the 10'x10' x10' space and up treacherously steep stiarcases without having any sort of convulsions.

While most people have formed their own ideas about Banksy already, an artist so fully integrated into our cultural consciousness (Urban Outfitters anyone?) as Banksy, I would like to give my two cents worth.
I thought that the beautiful prints and iconic images that he is so well known for lost their power framed and hung next to the loose spontaneous scrawls on the wall. While the gallery was far from pristine, the quick comments scribbled in black Sharpy were more effective and fresh looking. "Tired of War" is squeezed in the space between prints serves to subvert the order of the framed images and the space as a commercial gallery. There was bathroom style graffiti going up the side of the stairwell saying “more work upstairs->” or my favorite "There are times in life when people go the wrong way. This is one of those times." referring to the no-entry staircase that lead to the dj booth.  Perhaps that is the brilliance of the show. If Banksy must be part of the commercial institution he has relentlessly tried to undermine, he will even go as far as to subvert his own work.