A few years ago, in America, I remember attending a charity auction organized by the Philadelphia Arts League. Local artists were invited to exhibit and sell their works by placing them on a conveyor belt that slowly moved toward a shredder. If a piece was picked up by a buyer, the proceeds went to a children’s hospital; If not, it was thrown into the trash. The artist kept watching helplessly.
London-based street artist Banksy similarly sold a painting at a Sotheby’s auction for £1 million. As soon as the bid was accepted and the hammer fell, the artwork slipped from its frame and shattered on the floor. Ironically, the self-destruction increased the artistic value of the painting that was renamed. love is in the bin,
It is difficult to say whether the clipping was an artistic act done to add dramatic value to the painting, but in all likelihood it was part of Banksy’s plan to ensure that the art was not taken too seriously.
His big works are completely different. In 2017, in the West Bank, Banksy established Walled Off Hotel, a temporary art exhibition on the tragedy of Palestine. A play on New York’s Waldorf chain, this hotel looks right across Israel’s West Barrier and proudly claims to have the worst view in the world. Part art, part politics, part satire, the artwork has attracted more than 140,000 visitors so far.
A 2017 Banksy mural depicts cherubs opening the separation barrier in front of the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, West Bank. , Photo Credit: Getty Images
The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, 2022. , Photo Credit: Getty Images
necessary public vandalism
Without a doubt, Banksy is one of the most important and prolific street artists of our time today. In August 2024, nine animal-related artworks appeared one after the other on the walls of London. A gorilla at the entrance to the local zoo, two elephants stretching trunks out of building windows, pigeons on an imaginary string – the graphic simplicity of most of the works is often undercut by sharp satire. Two surveillance cameras hover like pigeons on the sidewalk; On a wall in Ukraine, a young boy wrestles a bully and wrestles him to the ground; Another was seen making a ‘Graffiti is a Crime’ sign. Banksy’s work – site-specific and done at night – is hard to classify as art or vandalism; But as one critic said, this is the most essential form of public barbarity.
Sadly, such barbarity is completely outside the scope of art in India. How well will Banksy fare in a country where the primary display of public art is the triptych? Mahabharata In a metro station, or in a bronze statue of Shivaji at a crossroads? Will he be allowed to run his painterly fingers on the walls around Churchgate station in Mumbai, or to defile Delhi’s India Gate? Could he really write a mysterious message about Indian democracy on the dome of Rashtrapati Bhavan, or wrap the new Parliament building in plastic. Unlikely.
A painting depicting the unsung heroes of the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. , Photo courtesy: PTI
Thought provoking message
For the past decade, despite growing popularity and visibility, Indian street art has been a reluctant commentator in the public sphere, even though it originally evolved from the political graffiti of Kolkata. It has since progressed to three-dimensional wall paintings, quotes and a variety of caricatures and large-scale imagery, which appear in many cities. In Delhi’s Lodhi Colony, high-walled arched colonial complexes are filled with a bright color palette that skillfully hides the gloomy neutrality of the old colonial architecture. At Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda, and at the annual street art festivals in Bengaluru, Kochi and Pune, portraits of famous personalities are scrawled on building facades, trees stretch their painted branches around corner walls; Murals also appear on private properties adjacent to the road. Talented local artists display their work on a wide variety of subjects with an unusually rich style of pictorial presentation.
Banksy’s ‘Armoured Dove’ in Bethlehem. , Photo Credit: Getty Images
In contrast, Banksy’s work is remarkably spare – relying on the directness of its thought-provoking message. It is as unusual in materials, performance and execution as it is a product of its stunning location. As always, the artist remains hidden in plain sight. Everyone knows him, but in public, he remains invisible, going about his nightly production without any fanfare or fanfare. A pandemic poster, ‘Don’t wash hands’ – is it social commentary or satire?; balloon girl – Graphic art or cultural artefact?; Surveillance cameras posing as street pigeons – public protest or political commentary? The calculated absurdity of the artist’s position is shocking, clever, disturbing, always surprising, but rarely self-aware. When, where and in what medium will it be screened next…?
As the Indian art season begins again, our own ill-natured cities – desolate, landscape-deprived, and falling apart – cry out for such expression. Religion, separatism, censorship, communal anger, rising illiteracy, bureaucratic apathy, political arrogance, business frauds, media manipulation, the list of Indian issues requiring public scrutiny is increasing by the day. But one Indian Banksy refuses to come out of the shadows.
The author is an architect.
published – January 10, 2025 10:50 AM IST
