I love myself a bit of subversion.
No one would ever really put me in the rebel boat, but I have a lot of strong opinions and ideals - mostly all in my head. I'm just too lazy to do much about it, really. Sad but true. I did rock my Doc Marten boots that I wore back in the 90s, though.
Last night, I saw a brilliant documentary, although I'm wondering how real it actually is. Perhaps the whole story was a set up, but it was nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards, so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Besides, the main 'character' of the film appeared to be so crazy, that kind of shit can't be made up.
The documentary I'm referring to is Exit Through the Gift Shop. If you like a good story, interesting (read: nutty) characters, and - like me - a bit of subversion, do yourself a favour. Watch it. It's almost worth it alone just for the lilting Welsh-accented narration (courtesy of Rhys Ifans).
The aforementioned features were all great, but what really got my juices going were the images of street art. They appealed very much to the inner artist/rebel in me (who never sees the light of day) - especially the work of Banksy. Clever social commentary, and all that.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm hip and have been following him all these years... but his name definitely rang a bell last night, and I'm guessing that perhaps he was blurrily on my radar when we lived in the UK. Whatever.
The term 'street art' doesn't really do him justice. What he creates is art, pure and simple. I won't waffle on with interpretations and discourse because I did enough of that when I studied Fine Arts to last me a life time.
Instead, I'll leave you with some of my favourite images of Banky's work.
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| Extra special because it was painted on to the Israeli West Bank barrier... ballsy (Photo source) |
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| Likewise with this one (Photo source) |
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| Who doesn't love stained glass? (Photo source) |
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| Clever (Photo source) |
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| Aww... (Photo source) |
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| Poor Thomas (Photo source) |
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| I want someone to throw me some flowers (Photo source) |
I think I may have a new hero.
Oh yes you most certainly did rock your Doc Marten boots!!! Amazing art - thanks for sharing xx
ReplyDeleteYes! I want to see this!
ReplyDeleteBanksy has certainly spawned a copycat generation. I see rip off street art like his all the time. Love it.
Ah I've seen some of these and didn't know who had done them. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love the job they've done on Thomas. I'll bet it's the Fat Controller's kids. They've had it in for him for a while.
Jen - funnily enough, there are no pics of me in my Docs. I'm glad you remember, though ;)
ReplyDeleteAngie - You MUST see this. Do it!
Melbo - Those Fat Controller kids... such brats, eh?
I remember those docs......and many other subversive things! Cool Banksy works too, Will check out the movie, although I never could understand the welsh, tanya
ReplyDeleteAh, memories of subversion... so it wasn't just in my head, then? I thought of you as I watched this. xxx
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