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Re: Graffiti (street art) at Tate Modern London UK

From:     
Category: Exhibitions
Date:     27 May 2008
Time:     06:11 AM

Review:

Graffiti art has been so much a part of commercial culture that I don't think it can claim to be subversive in any way shape or 
form. Actually companies like Nike produce better versions of Banksy's work than he does. It is a sad reflection of our distortion 
of values that we care more about scribbling than we do a beautiful drawing by Raphael. It takes time and engagement to 
understand something made in another culture in another time whereas graffiti is junk food for the eye, like a dirty dog pissing 
up a fence.

 But people who write about it still try to maintain that mystique, despite every evidence to the contrary. If your a graffit "artist" 
the world is queing up to give you residencies and in Denmark or Norway you might even be invited to docorate State 
buildings.

I find Banksy's work to be utterly void of anything other than self promotion. The images such as two policeman kissing or a 
banana coming out of a gun are precisely the kind of images only hollywood stars would have any interest in. I think the artist 
offsets this banality buy going to Palestine and other places. I guess he's not involved or living there so it gives his phoney 
posturing more gravitas.

I'm sure the genteel and nice people who are writing catalogues about "street art" would be the first to complain to the police if 
their homes in Islington and Chelsea were used as "conduits of creative street expression".


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