Bansky in Context

概要

今天在79th Street & Broadway的街角碰到了著名街头画家Bansky的大作，算是意外的惊喜吧！这家伙最近很火，今年应该刚刚40岁，已经有很多画作的印刷品出售了。每次看到这些印刷品，我就忍不住想问：“哪些人会买这些印刷品呢？”

在我看来，固然有人是喜欢他的幽默感或者是认同他的政治观点，但是更重要的是，他是街头画的大师。他的画作无缝密合街头的实物，让画和街景合二为一。比如这副画里面的消防栓，是原本就有的，整个画面自然有趣，让人忍俊不住。把街头画印刷出来挂在房间里，未免就有了斧凿的痕迹，艺术性和趣味性都大大降低了。

NYC is full of surprises, sometimes in a pleasant way. Today as I was walking to my lunch date on UWS, I bumped into this piece of art at 79^th Street x Broadway.

Well, as Bansky’s street art gains popularity, I've seen prints sold online recently. "Interesting work, " I told myself, "but who on earth will buy this piece of shit?" Don’t get me wrong – I like his work; what I don't understand is why people will buy a copy of STREET art and hang it in their APARTMENT. People may like his humor or agree with his political expression, but as far as I see, most of his art work would lose at least half of their beauty when they were taken out of context.

Bansky’s street art is more than stencils on the wall; it takes in everything around it as an integral part of artwork. Just imagine the fire hydrant being removed from under the hammer, or the stencil below was not drawn on the waterline of the Thekla, or the bright yellow flower did not wrap around the corner of the building. Will they still be as interesting? I doubt it. Bansky is a master of street art, in that he knows how to make it work in the street seamlessly with everything, being it a fire hydrant, a window or a crappy window unit A/C. It takes pure originality, massive imagination, and incredible sense of humor, but a lot of the above will get lost when the stencils are moved from where they are.

…Wait a minute, I take it back. Maybe I can have that little boy with the hammer in my living room. He will be hammering the damned computer that takes too much of my leisure time.