some sort of Banksy retrospective
One can perceive several changes in Banksy’s street art from 2007 onwards: Fewer, but more elaborate. Banksy went to Bristol in October to paint a police sniper and a boy with a paper bag waiting to burst into his ears.
Banksy revisited the Glastonbury festival, where he erected “Boghenge”, a version of Stonehenge. He also stencilled “cop frisking a little girl”.
Banksy went to Los Angeles in the fall of 2006 to prepare Barely Legal. He did a handful of street art pieces to promote the upcoming show.
In June 2006, Banksy went back to Bristol to paint the iconic Well Hung Man on Frogmore Street. Other notable work includes the vandalised telephone booth and 18 Minutes, the maid sweeping the dust under the carpet.
Apart from the works in Palestine in August 2005, Banksy concentrated on London this year. An interesting development in this period is the street installations in the London urban landscape.
In August 2005, Team Banksy visited Palestine, where they painted nine large murals on the segregation wall. Banksy commented that the wall “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison.” Banksy’s website reminded readers that Israel’s 425-mile-long West Bank barrier, separating Israel from the Palestinian territories, is considered illegal by the United Nations.
During the visit to Ramallah and surrounding areas, Banksy reported some tense moments. His spokeswoman, Jo Brooks, said: “The Israeli security forces did shoot in the air threateningly, and there were quite a few guns pointed at him.”
In early 2004, a group from Team Banksy went to the Caribbean together with DJ Jon Carter and filmmaker Rick Elgood. One of their hosts during the visit was Jamaican dancehall star Mark Anthony Myrie, a.k.a. Buju Banton. There is very little documented from the trip to Jamaica and even less from Cuba. The following collage with pictures of some of the work in Jamaica surfaced years later, when Steven Lazarides put part of his personal collection up for sale at Juliens in LA:
Photo: From Lazarides / Julien’s
The Jamaican magazine/blog Afflicted Yard published a few photos in 2004 of Team Banksy at work in Jamaica:
Photo to the left: Rick Elgood, Rob G, unknown and Buju Banton holding the sticker. Photo to the right: Rob G sorting out the stencils
London was the main focus of street art activity in 2004. But, also two pieces in Brighton and two in Somerset. There were only two pieces outside the UK in 2004, one documented in Berlin and another in Chicago. One of Banksy’s most iconic pieces goes up in Southbank: The girl with the red balloon.
Photos: “Wall and piece”.
‘Whitehouse Rat’ by Banksy is probably the largest of his artworks, all categories, painted in broad daylight in Liverpool’s Chinatown. The artwork, which in its original form depicted a giant rat holding a marker pen, spanned nearly 200 square meters of a building that had previously housed the Whitehouse Pub, which quickly led to the piece being referred to by the press as ‘The Whitehouse Rat’.
The artwork was timed to coincide with the September 2004 Liverpool Biennial, which Banksy invited himself to, by painting a host of works throughout the city during the prestigious art fair.
A few months later, on 4 August 2004, Banksy installed another massive sculpture in London; the figure of justice overlooking the Old Bailey in London – with US dollar bills stuffed into her garter and a plaque on the plinth saying: “Trust no-one”.
Photos: Art of the State – http://www.aots.co.uk
Flyer for the Justice Unveiled event:
In February 2004, Banksy installed a statue in Princess Circus, a small square in central London. The statue is called The Drinker, a caricature of Augustin Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker. A few weeks later, the statue was stolen by self-proclaimed “art terrorist” Andy Link.
In early 2004, a group from Team Banksy went to the Caribbean together with DJ Jon Carter and filmmaker Rick Elgood. One of their hosts during the visit was Jamaican dancehall star Mark Anthony Myrie, a.k.a. Buju Banton. There is very little documented from the trip to Jamaica and even less from Cuba. The following collage with pictures of some of the work in Jamaica surfaced years later, when Steven Lazarides put part of his personal collection up for sale at Juliens in LA:
Photo: From Lazarides / Julien’s
The Jamaican magazine/blog Afflicted Yard published a few photos in 2004 of Team Banksy at work in Jamaica:
Photo to the left: Rick Elgood, R, unknown and Buju Banton holding the sticker. Photo to the right: R sorting out the stencils
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.
In the first years of the decade, besides the UK and US, Banksy went to Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Bergen, Copenhagen, 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 joined the Easton Cowboys, a radical football team from Bristol. In early 2001, they went to Chiapas, Mexico, to play against a football team from EZLN, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. Banksy played as a goalkeeper. During the stay in Chiapas, the Banksy team completed a few stencils and at least two free-hands.
The Swiss ambassador to the UK invited a group of street artists to decorate the underground parking of the embassy. It was part of a cultural programme. The press release from the Swiss Embassy read as follows:
“The course of the new century will be shaped and determined largely by those who are 15 – 30 years old today. We, the members of staff at the Swiss Embassy in London, are dedicating our programme for 2001 to this particular section of our society. We want to find out from the “next generation” what it thinks of the future, how it plans and influences future events, what values and ideas it has. We want to learn and understand, we want to debate and experience.Together with young people and young adults we intend to organise five principal events:
We want to begin the year 2001 with a New Year Graffiti Party for 15-30 year-olds in the Garage at the Embassy. We have invited other graffiti artists too, who will transform the Embassy’s Garage into a cultural space one month before the Party.”
Two of Banksy’s many pieces:
Photos: Banksyforum, Flickr
The Guardian told the story behind the ambassador’s initiative:
Banksy unofficial 