some sort of Banksy retrospective
Santa’s Ghetto 2003 opened on 2 December in an abandoned store just off Carnaby Street in London. It contained work by Banksy, Jamie Hewlett, Mode 2, and 3D, among others. Described by Pictures on Walls as a “festive extravaganza of cheap art and related novelty goods from lowbrow artists and trained vandals”. The launch party attracted Damon Albarn of Blur, and star chef Jamie Oliver.
Photos: Wembley Pairs, Flickr
On 17 October, Banksy entered Tate Britain disguised as a pensioner and stuck one of his creations in a vacant slot on one of the gallery’s walls. After a few hours, the painting Crimewatch UK Has Ruined the Countryside For All of Us, crashed to the floor, and the stunt was discovered. In his own words:
“To actually go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It’s a lot more fun to go and put your own one up. It’s all about cutting out the middle man, or the curator in the case of the Tate. I’m kinda into the message that vandalising a painting with police tape is how a lot of people see the world these days. People don’t actually see the world with Constable’s eyes with hay and rivers any more. The amount of paranoia and fear about violent crime and paedophilia makes mine a more accurate drawing of the English landscape we actually live in.”
A caption glued next to the painting read: “This new acquisition is a beautiful example of the neo post-idiotic style. Little is known about Banksy whose work is inspired by cannabis resin and daytime television.”
The show opened on 18 July and lasted for three days. Turf War displayed a great variety of genres, techniques, and styles. It marked the beginning of a string of brilliant exhibitions with a periodicity of approximately two years: Turf War in 2003, Crude Oils in 2005, Barely Legal in 2006, Banksy vs. Bristol Museum in 2009, etc. The London art critics called the exhibition one of the most interesting of the year.
Photos: http://www.artofthestate.co.uk and Benny Goh
ITV recorded this interview from the exhibitions—one of the few documented footage of a member of Team Banksy.
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BBC Radio also interviewed Banksy at the Turf War exhibition.
The interview can be heard here:
Banksy went to a farm in Somerset to spray-paint live animals for his upcoming Turf War exhibition in London. Animal rights activists chained themselves to the railings surrounding the farm. “The cattle are show cattle donated by the farmer, and he was happy to lend them,” said a spokeswoman for the exhibition.
Banksy focused on London in 2002 and 2003, but he also did a few pieces in Bristol and Brighton. The iconic work Pulp Fiction went up in 2002 on Old Street in Shoreditch, one of Banksy’s preferred areas in London. The Royal Guards in different areas of London are from the same period.
Banksy participated at the big anti-Iraq war demonstration in London, where he distributed placards with different slogans written on them. One was, “I don’t believe in anything. I’m just here for the violence” .
During the first years of the 2000s, Banksy’s canvases started to sell well. Here are some early originals, mostly oil and acrylic on canvas.
Semipermanent was an annual art festival held in Sydney, Australia. Banksy participated with a 12-metre panel. Melbourne’s Burn Crew, Dmote of Australia, 123Klan of France, and Shepard Fairey also attended.
Photos: Gary Trinh and Semi Permanent
In the first years of the decade, besides the UK and US, Banksy went to Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, Paris, and Palestine, where he painted the first stencilled version of the iconic Love is in the Air behind a gas station in Bethlehem.
Banksy unofficial 