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Ulrich Blanché

BANKSY

Ulrich Blanché

Banksy

Urban Art in a Material World

Translated from German by

Rebekah Jonas and Ulrich Blanché

Tectum

Ulrich Blanché

Banksy. Urban Art in a Material World

Translated by Rebekah Jonas and Ulrich Blanché

Proofread by Rebekah Jonas

Tectum Verlag Marburg, 2016

ISBN 978-3-8288-6357-6

(Dieser Titel ist zugleich als gedrucktes Buch unter der ISBN 978-3-8288-3541-2 im Tectum Verlag erschienen.) Umschlagabbildung: Food Art made in 2008 by Prudence Emma Staite. Reprinted by kind permission of Nestlé and Prudence Emma Staite.

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www.tectum-verlag.de www.facebook.com/tectum.verlag Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Angaben sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar.

Table of Content

1) Introduction 11

a) How Does Banksy Depict Consumerism? 11 b) How is the Term Consumer Culture Used in this Study? 15 c) Sources 17

2) Terms and De?nitions 19

a) Consumerism and Consumption 19 i) ?e Term Consumption 19 ii) ?e Concept of Consumerism 20 b) Cultural Critique, Critique of Authority and Environmental Criticism 23 c) Consumer Society 23 i) Narrowing Down »Consumer Society" 24 ii) Emergence of Consumer Societies 25 d) Consumption and Religion 28 e) Consumption in Art History 31 i) Marcel Duchamp 32 ii) Andy Warhol 35 iii) Je? Koons 39 f) Gra?ti, Street Art, and Urban Art 43 i) Gra?ti 43 ii) ?e Term Street Art 44 iii) De?nition of Street Art 45 (1) Street (and) Art 46 (2) »Illegal" versus »Self-authorized" 47 (3) Word versus Image 49 (4) ?e Viewer of Street Art 51 (5) Street Art Is Site-speci?c 52 (6) ?e Performative Aspect of Street Art 53 (7) Street Art Is Ephemeral and Participatory 54 (8) Street Art and Advertising 55 (9) Quality Characteristics of Street Art 56 iv) Urban Art 59

3) London at the Turn of the Millennium 61

a) ?e London Art Scene since 1980 62 b) Damien Hirst and Young British Artists 66 c) What makes a British artist in the 1990s a Young British Artist? 73

4) Banksy 79

a) Street Art - ?e Rise of Banksy 79 i) Why Did Street Art Increase around 2000? 83 ii) ?e Spectacularization of Art 87 iii) Barcode - »Barcode Leopard" (2000) 89 iv) Money 93 (1) »Cash Point" (ca. 2001-2005) 93 (2) »Di-Faced Tenners" (2005) 97 v) Leftist Consumption 100 (1) »IKEA Punk" (2009) 100 (1.1) »Street" Art: Site-speci?city and the Role of Photography 105 (1.2) Commercialization of Street Art 108 (2) »Destroy Capitalism" (2006) 110 b) Painting - »Crude Oils" (since 2000) 114 i) ?e Series and the Exhibition 114 (1) ?e Framing 118 (2) Rats 120 ii) Selected Artwork 121 (1) Toxic Waste Barrel - »Crude Oil" (2005) 121 (2) Shopping Cart - »Show me the Monet" (2005) 125 (3) ?e Tesco Supermarket Motif and the Shopping Bag 129 (3.1) Street Art in a Museum - »Discount Soup Can" (2005) 129 (3.2) Supermarket Bag - »Very Little Helps" (2008) 132 (3.3) Essentials and Non-Essentials - Shopping Bag and Religion 137 c) Installation - »?e Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill" (2008-09) 140 i) Fast-food Consumption - »Nuggets" and »Sausages" 144 ii) Animals as a Raw Material Supplier - »Leopard" 150 iii) Children, Consumption and Cosmetics - »Rabbit" 152 iv) Media Consumption - »Primates" 155 (1) ?e TV-Set 156 (2) ?e Artist as Masturbator 160

5) Banksy and Damien Hirst 165

a) »Keep it Spotless (Defaced Hirst)" (2007) 165 b) Hirst"s Spot Paintings 168 c) »Keep it Spotless (Defaced Hirst)" (2007) Part 2 173 d) ?e Location Reference - Street and Art 183

6) Artistic strategies for dealing with Consumer Phenomena 189

a) A Consumer Paradise Illusion? 191 i) ?e Controlled »Shock" 191 ii) Over-Identi?cation and Irony 192 b) Banksy"s Anti-Consumption, Political-Activist Caricature 192 i) Images of Images 193 ii) (Dis)placement and Staging 195 c) Brands not Products 196 d) Souvenirs 199 e) Advertising 199 e) (Im)material ?ings 202

7) Appendix 205

a) Banksy"s Pseudonym 205 b) Banksy"s »Biography" 212 c) Banksy"s Exhibitions 222 i) Banksy"s Artistic Activities and Travels 228 ii) Banksy"s Album Covers 230 d) Bibliography 232 i) Online Sources with an Author 232 ii) Online Sources without an Author 240 iii) Other Websites 245 iv) Printed Magazine or Newspaper Articles, Papers, Essays and Interviews 247 v) Books and Exhibition Catalogs 250 vi) Videos 255

Thanks to

Rebekah Jonas, Ira von Moltke, Charlotte Reuß (lectorship bibliography), Rob Sharp, Prudence Staite, Andrew Bloch (Frank PR), Adrian Nabi, Jakob

Paur (Juice).

Ulrich Blanché sen., Vanessa Krout, Florian Wimmer, Nadja Gebhardt, Siri Hornschild, Anna Fech, Lisa Neubauer, Angela Beyerlein did the editing of the German version. I would also like to thank my supervisors Prof Dr. Hans Dickel and

Prof. Dr. Matthias Warstat.

?is study was written with the help of a two-year grant by the Bavarian supported in the research phase in London by the DAAD. 11

1) Introduction

a) How Does Banksy Depict Consumerism? How does Banksy, often called a »Street Artist", deal with consumer culture in his art? To answer this question, this study highlights representative works of his art, speci?cally works dealing with di?erent aspects of consumer culture. At the same time, an attempt was made to select works that show his versatility as well as to introduce and analyze works from di?erent periods of his oeuvre and a range of work groups. ?is book about Banksy, urban art and consumption is one updated half of my German PhD thesis published unter the German title »Konsumkunst - Kultur und Kommerz bei Banksy und Damien Hirst", consumption art, cul ture and commerce at Banksy and Damien Hirst" in 2012 written between 2008
and 2011. ?e second half has the working title »Damien Hirst - Gallery Art in a Material World" and will be published soon. I devided my thesis due to its lengh and to reach a wider readership. Each of the two books make sense without the other. Both contain the same chapter about Hirst"s and Banksy"s collaboration pieces and as well as theoretical chapters about consumption. Banksy is usually categorized as a Street Artist, however, he developed fur ther in both content and form away from this sometimes narrow term. Alison Y oung suggested, Street Art could be a historical term soon, like Young British Art. 1 Sotheby"s sells Banksy already simply as »contemporary artist". ?is pub- lication does not just deal primarily with Banksy"s Street Art, but rather with the ar tist Banksy and his relationship with consumer culture. ?e selected Banksy works stem primarily from the period between 2000 and 2009. In the publication »Something to s(pr)ay. ?e Street Artivist Banksy" (2010), I dealt intensively with Banksy"s works on the street and adequately delineated the de?nition and development of the concept of Street Art. By Street Art I mean self-authorized signs in public space, often urban space that want to communicate with a larger circle of viewers. Style writers (their work is usually addressed as Gra?ti in the media) also create self-autho rized, that is non-legal, illicit or at least uncommissioned works, but usually primarily tr y to reach their peers. Based on the aforementioned short de?- nition of Street Art (discussed in the chapter »Street Art, Gra?ti and Urban 1 Alison Young in her talk »Mainstreaming the Street: ?e Cultural Value of Illicit Street Art" at the Street Art Philosophy Confernce in NYC, March 2015. 12 Ulrich Blanché: Banksy. Urban Art in a Material World Art") this study examines two of Banksy"s gallery shows/installations, which are extended forms of Street Art, and relate to it in both form and content. ?e umbrella term Urban Art, mentioned in the book"s title includes Street Art, Style Writing and art by Gra?ti or Street Artists in other locations and media than the street. Inspired by the subtitle of the Tate Modern"s exhibition »Pop Life" in

2009, a title of a similar wording, »Art in a Material World", has been selected

as the subtitle for the present study. ?is consumer-art retrospective exhibition featured Damien Hirst, Je? Koons, and Andy Warhol, among others, three of the artists also discussed here in detail. ?e exhibition, »Pop Life" explored phenomena between art and commerce, much in the same vein as the pres ent study. Like some of the works discussed here, the title »Art in a Material W orld" was in?uenced by a pop song by Madonna in 1985: »We are living in a material world and I am a material girl", who took the term »material world" from Karl Marx. 2 ?e materialistic values and faith in objects still seem repre- sentative of contemporary consumer society. B ut why was »consumer culture" chosen as the focus? ?e ?rst chapter focuses on the terminology of consumption in general as well as its use in this analysis as a phenomenon that transcends time and existence. Consumption in its modern form is, at least 'for the masses", a relatively new phenomenon. In the history of art (as treated in the chapter »Consumption and Art His tory") consumption only ?rst appeared in the 20th century in DADA and later , more conspicuously, in Pop Art, with a mix of glori?cation, observation, irony, criticism, or perhaps all at the same time. ?e positive aspects of con sumer culture have secured, at least until now, rising levels of a?uence in the western world, while the negative aspects of (perverted) consumer behavior are associated directly, although this association is often denied, with the most momentous issues of our time: global warming and the international ?nancial crisis. Artists acted as »seismographs" of their socio-cultural environment and reacted to the diverse phenomena of what is here described under the term »consumer culture" in various ways. On the other hand, they also shaped so 2 Cf. Madonna"s single from 1985: Material Girl. See also Karl Marx: »To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain, i.e., the process of thinking, which, under the name of ‰the Idea,ˆ he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of ‰the Idea.ˆ With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought." In Capital. Vol. 1. Afterward to the Second German Edition. 13

1) Introduction

ciety"s image of consumer culture. Along with the question of (over)consump- tion in consumer cultures, the issue of consumption (and/or capitalism) as a sour ce of meaning and identity will be raised in this study. Apart from the author"s 2010 publication, which is devoted to Banksy"s work on the street, his work was not previously subjected to a single academic investigation. Despite ongoing speculation by daily press and art publications that Banksy was just enjoying his 15 minutes of fame, a common phenom enon in modern consumer culture, his art continues to create considerable inter est and is experiencing an ever increasing importance in the media and in the art world. 3 In fact, this long-term media coverage in particular shows that despite all the allegations, the artist has been able to exemplify the consumer culture of their age and aptly re?ect it in his works. ?ese speci?cs of our time should be examined in light of Banksy"s artwork. Banksy was selected because on the surface his art seem to be transparent and easy to understand. Before a concrete analysis of the artistic environment of Banksy can take place, an explanation and de?nition of »consumer culture" and related terms like »consumer society" and »consumerism" is necessary. In the same way, con sumer culture will be discussed in the context of religion, particularly with r egard to Walter Benjamin"s theory of »capitalism as religion", taken from his

1921 publication of the same name. Another chapter provides an overview of

this motif in art history, which establishes continuity from Marcel Duchamp to Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Andy Warhol, Je? Koons and contemporary art. In addition, older examples that are closely related to consumption such as the moralizing Dutch genre painting denouncing overindulgence are brie?y discussed. A chapter that deals with the metropolis of London around the turn of the millennium follows this overview of the phenomenon of »consumer culture". ?e chapter begins with a socio-cultural-political-economic background of the city; ?rst in the ?atcher era (1979-1990) including the impact on economy and society; and then the New Labour era of Tony Blair, marked by terrorist attacks of September 11 th , 2001 in New York as well as the attack in London in July of 2005. ?ese historical developments are speci?cally related to the art scene in London since 1980, which, until that time, was dominated by historic structures and strict limitations. A portrayal of the change of system at 3 ?e majority of large national and international newspapers wrote about Banksy, e.g. the New York and London Times, German F.A.Z. and Süddeutsche Zeitung. His movie was nominated for an Oscar, his book Wall and Piece sold 1.5 million copies etc. 14 Ulrich Blanché: Banksy. Urban Art in a Material World Goldsmiths College illuminates the university environment of young Damien Hirst, who came to London in the mid-1980s. ?is description will be fol- lowed by a general overview of the Young British Artists in the 1990s, of which H irst is considered the best-known representative, as well as an overview of formative in?uences on his art such as advertising or the ?rst Saatchi Gallery. ?e next section discusses the London art world in the context of a sup posedly new phenomenon - Street Art - which, from 2000 onwards, rose dramatically , notably, but not exclusively, in the British capital. One of the most famous representatives of Street Art is a Bristol native with a background in classical American Gra?ti or Style Writing: Banksy. ?is section describes the establishment and growth of Street Art as well as the in?uence of formative historical events of those years, such as the Iraq war. It then further analyzes several bodies of work from Banksy in terms of his relation to consumer so ciety. B anksy"s works are divided into three groups - Street Art, »paintings" and installations. Until about 2005, the majority of Banksy"s art appeared in urban areas. Today, he is still primarily associated with his self-authorized work on the street, although he has been creating more and more legal art since 2000. ?e chapter »Street Art" discusses a few of Banksy"s illegal stencil works, which he sprayed between 2000 and 2008. ?is section analyzes Banksy"s recurring motifs, among which are topics dealing with various signs of consumer cul ture, such as the bar code in the illegal stencil work »Barcode Leopard" (2000), the A TM machine in »Cash Point" (2001-2005) and leftist consumer culture in »IKEA Punk" (2009) and »Destroy Capitalism" (2006). As with all of Banksy"s illegal works, not only the actual, visible end result of the particular production process must be considered, but also the locality and media of the ?nal result are signi?cant. ?erefore, the concrete analysis of Banksy"s works is preceded by general thoughts on (his) Street Art in the context of consumption, which also apply to the aforementioned groups, al though not exclusively. Even if, for reasons of clarity and simplicity, Banksy"s stencils ar e considered synonymous with Street Art here, the same theory can be applied to stickers, posters, and other two or three-dimensional art objects in public spaces - which in this study is called »urban art" or (based on the concept of Street Art) the »street" interchangeably. ?is study examines Banksy, an artist with a Style Writing Gra?ti back ground, not only in light of his self-authorized work on the street, which places him in the categor y of Street Artist, but also in terms of two gallery exhibitions, »Crude Oils" from 2005 and »?e Village Petstore and Charcoal 15

1) Introduction

Grill" from 2008. »Crude Oils", the title of both a series of works as well as an exhibition of several paintings from this series, features motifs such as toxic waste barrels, shopping carts and shopping bags, which are of particular inter est for this study. In the same way, »?e Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill" is both a gr oup of works and the name of an exhibition that, this time, deals with Banksy"s use of animal sculpture, which, for the purposes of this study, will be examined in light of such themes as television, celebrity worship, and fast food. ?e aim of this study is not to use structure and language to merely ru minate on tired interpretation schemes, but rather turn the tables to focus on the vie wer and the manufacturing process of the works as well as the central aspects of money and art as a consumer product, themes that are often avoided in art studies because they a?ect both art historians so and their raison d"être so centrally. A piece from Damien Hirst"s Spot Painting series, »Keep it Spotless (De faced Hirst)", forms the basis of a joint work with Banksy, the analysis of which pr ovides a seamless transition to a comparison of both artists. ?e in- terpretation is particularly concerned with the relationship between consumer cultur e and science/medicine. All these works are analyzed in terms of materials, iconography, and his tory of ideas with regard to their framing of consumer culture. In addition, particular emphasis is given to the position of the viewer and the use of the space that plays a dominant role for Banksy. At the time of this study, Banksy is only in his late thirties, a fact which limits the de?nitive scope of statements about his oeuvre. ?is study regards itself as the ?rst step towards further studies about Banksy. b) How is the Term Consumer Culture Used in this Study? ?e term »consumerism" is a di?cult concept that carries with it an often neg- ative-critical connotation that is linked to manipulation and alienation, but is often used di?erently in various contexts or interpreted to varying extremes. ?e form of traditional Western European consumer and luxury criticism as sociated with this negative connotation goes back to the 17th Century or ev en back to antiquity. As late as the 1970s, the term was often used as a neu- tral, purely quantitative economic size. Since the 1990s, the term has begun, accor ding to Wyrwa, to lose its pejorative undertone, and is now less »than 16 Ulrich Blanché: Banksy. Urban Art in a Material World passive su?ering, but as an act of communication, understood as a moment of social and political exchange." 4 In the context of this study, the term consumption carries this 'positive communicative act" explicitly as well. In this context, consumption implies not just purely economically-neutral consumption, as in the now outdated term »Konsumverein" (cooperative), but rather to emphasize the importance of consumption in today"s consumer society and consumer culture (see cor responding chapter). A careful examination of both the act of consumption and of the consumer (i.e. the obser vation of a human being with regard to what s/he selects, consumes, discards) automatically leads to a critical view of consumption, but not in the one-sided understanding embodied by the classic leftist critique of consumer society (see corresponding chapter), but in the original sense of the word criticism - something balanced, describing and eval uating the subject in both positive and negative ways. Nevertheless, the term »consumption" carries with it a slightly negativ e connotation derived from history in the same way that the term »consumerism" is not entirely neutral. In the present study, I deliberately omitted the concept of capitalism and the use of the term »critique of capitalism", as consumption is seen here as the main and sometimes the only social action and interaction in the predominant form of modern capitalism. In this study, consumption has the same relationship to capitalism as praying to religion (see chapter »Consumption and Religion"), whereby the act of consuming is a manifestation of the current economic and social order. Both artists work within this present system of capitalism; they comment upon and shape its speci?c formulation or action, that is, consump tion and human behavior within this matrix, with Banksy"s sarcastic words: »We can"t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves." 5 Even beyond areas like Street Art or Pop Art that are covered in the pres- ent study, the relationship between art and the market is ever present. ?is r elationship is also re?ected in and closely tied to performance art, a form which at its inception developed as a counterweight to the idea of artwork as a consumable product and, at times, o?ers highly sophisticated re?ections on such market mechanisms of art. As a theater scientist as well as art historian, I often compare performance art with performance; even if, for reasons of 4 Wyrwa in Siegrist 1997, p. 747, see also David Sabean: Die Produktion von Sinn beim Konsum der Dinge. In: Wolfgang Ruppert (Ed.): Fahrrad, Auto, Kühlschrank. Zur Kulturgeschichte der Alltagsdinge. Frankfurt/Main 1993. 5

Banksy in Wall and Piece 2005, p. 204.

17

1) Introduction

space, comparable (in terms of this work also fertile) matters such as ?uxus, situationism or land art cannot be further explored. c) Sources Academic sources about Banksy during the writing process of this book (2008-

2011) were limited, with all the resulting advantages and disadvantages:

Banksy"s own four book publications and his website served as primary sources. ?e illustrated book »Home Sweet Home. Banksy"s Bristol" (2007) by Steve Wright was also a useful source of stimulation with several Banksy quotes, anecdotes, and pictures. In the case of other books, academic and non-academic, texts were mostly con?ned to a brief biography and a cursory listing of some of works and actions. From the abundance of English-language literature in the form of picture books and entertainment books (the most have »Street Art" or »Gra?ti" in the title) Tristan Manco"s »Stencil Gra? ti", published in 2002, stands out. Academic literature about Street Art and Gra?ti can almost exclusively be reduced to Cedar Lewinson"s Tate Modern exhibition catalog »Street Art" from 2008. ?e oft-cited »Kool Killer" essay (1978) by French intellectual Baudrillard about the early American Gra?ti/ Style Writing scene re?ects a great in?uence by the 1968 movement. In the last few years several new academic studies got published. ?e ones in?uencial for this study are mentioned in the chapter »Street Art, Gra?ti and Urban Art". Most sources about Banksy in this study were/are available online, due both to the novelty of the subject as well the role of the internet as primary distribution apparatus (in the form of photos) and discussion forum for (not only Banksy"s) Street Art. Particularly helpful online forums were the Banksy group on Flickr.com and banksyforum.proboards.com. ?ese, as well as (on line) newspaper articles mainly from British newspapers and magazines, were cited with regard to mentioned details and descriptions, whereby most of the latter just include one or more of Banksy"s actions and works (often in connec tion with sale prices) and otherwise merely speculate about his identity. Often, the open secr et or insinuation that Banksy is poking fun at the art market, the buyers, and the public instead of creating real art, is featured in such media pieces. ?e most in?uential literature about consumer culture for this study was Wolfgang Ullrich"s »Habenwollen" (2006), even though Ullrich"s thesis that the guilty conscience that arises from consumption is harmful and unnecessary 18 Ulrich Blanché: Banksy. Urban Art in a Material World in the a?uent society of today, seems questionable. Furthermore, he largely ignores well known consumer issues such as environmental degradation and exploitation of the third world, which remain relevant aspects of the critiquequotesdbs_dbs28.pdfusesText_34

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