I'm sure y'all are familiar with
Banksy, the graffiti artist / culture jammer (wow, I can't believe I just used that term) who lives in England. There is something magical about his work, to me - most No Logo brandishing anti-capitalist types seem so dour to me that their message gets lost, but Banksy is different. There is just something so inherently positive about his work, that whereas a typical culture jammer (argh! Twice I've used it now!) focuses on the negatives of our capitalist hegemony, and seems to offer commentary without solutions, Banksy's work makes me feel like there is something better than our current system. It's the difference between a hijacked Calvin Klein ad like the one
here - which feels bleak, and doesn't tell me anything different than what by now we all know, and doesn't make me feel like the people behind it have any new ideas on how to fix this problem - and Banksy's graffiti, like
this piece which makes the same sort of comment about television and children that the people behind TV Turnoff Week might want to make, but with more flair, irreverence, and hope, somehow, than the fake Obsession ad.
And sometimes, of course, he's just cheeky. Banksy's latest stunt was to
doctor 500 copies of Paris Hilton's eponymous debut CD (too bad Sugar Ray already used the title "14:59") and put them back on the shelves in music stores in the UK. The music itself was remixed by Danger Mouse, with the packaging punked by Banksy.
There is something so democratic, so accessible about graffiti. I realize that more often than not, it's just tagging, and that's not really all that interesting. But Banksy's work isn't just interesting, it's available. It normally appears in places where there isn't a lot of art to begin with, it's free, and it's also digestible by people who might not have the sort of vocabulary of art appreciation that comes from extensive schooling or even regular gallery visits. Furthering that philosophy of openness is this video, in which the entire process is documented, and set to one of Danger Mouse's remixed tracks.
Of course, this comment on consumer culture is now on eBay, at last glance, they were going for well over a thousand dollars. I wonder what Banksy would have to say about that?
So the only remaining question: what does Paris Hilton think of all this? Whatever her handlers are telling her to think about it, I imagine. But honestly, who cares? Banksy's commentary on her work is a million times more interesting than the work itself. I'm not sure if that means I should be hoping for another Paris Hilton album or not.
