(Banksy's work getting auto-shredded at the Sothbey's)
A stunt is a stunt is a stunt. Banksy’s ‘Going Going Gone’,
the shredding stunt at the Sothbey’s last weekend auction should be taken as a
stunt well planned, well executed and well discussed. A stunt gains its due
mileage when its impact reaches the maximum number of people and Banksy, as
usual should be cheering with the masters of the auction universe for the
expected results. A print of the famous ‘balloon flying girl’, a piece of
thought provoking graffiti work had gone for an estimated price of $1.36
million before it got shredded into pieces by a shredding appendage hidden
inside a ‘clumsy’ frame. I am not here playing a myth-buster for the myth
around the ‘Going Going Gone’ work (an instagram notification by Banksy
himself) has already been busted by many. But the question I want to raise here
is simple: Is there any myth at all behind this stunt that shredded a ‘print’
of a work of art whose original was originally made to defy and lampoon the art
market?
Banksy’s transformation from an invisible/incognito graffiti
artist, a sort of space snatcher or space occupier to the darling of the
auction market has been gradual though unsurprising; it is bound to happen to
any products including the cultural ones as they are destined to be dragged
into the existing value system which as of today is determined by monetary
value therefore are liable to be a part of the market system whether the
producer of such products wants it to be so or not. Banksy’s anonymity becomes
questionable mainly because of this market intervention; it is disputable
whether market made an intervention into his life and art or it was Banksy who
pulled the strings in such a way that the market wouldn’t have stood and stared.
Banksy today is an industry (the products of which could claim a higher price
for their scandalous value as the whole affair is based on scandalizing the
social norms, which at the height of capitalism becomes the real norms that
goad the affluent and callous indulge in such lascivious sports like pillow
fighting a la Fellini’s La Dolce Vita) and industry has to have myths to
prolong its own life and that of its products.
(source: Vanity Fair)
Myth making a part of any industry (any film star shedding a
few kilos for a role is one such myth though a part of it could have an iota of
truth in it). A myth becomes a believable myth only when it has some bit of
truth to spice it up. That microcosmic truth in a macrocosmic lie/myth helps it
to perpetuate itself in rational and believable terms as a myth is always seen
in a predetermined perspective; rather the truth is that the myth has often
only one perspective to retain its awe. The moment it is interpreted and
critiqued from a different perspective, it not only bursts the myth in question
(demystifies it) but also nullifies all the claims built around it. A nullified
myth is as valueless as a tattered gunny bag that is still a bag but fails to
hold anything substantial in it. Therefore, any myth in any industry
conveniently discourages demystification efforts by critics by almost
annihilating their status and career (remember what happened to Khalid
Mohammed, the film critic and writer). The only unfortunate thing that happened
with Banksy, the anonymous artist is this that he became a part of the game that
keeps the already busted myth on.
The Banksy myth is an economic necessity for the art/auction
world and it is at the same time a cultural necessity for the might land of
Britain. Banksy being a British artist (that itself is an anachronism as an
incognito artist need not necessarily be a ‘British’ artist by origin; he could
be an accidental Brit operating from the United Kingdom), it is the
responsibility of the state of Britain to take care of the myth. Though Banksy
had started off as a nuisance/a threat to the public morality who vandalized the
sanitized public spaces, after few years, with the growing respect that he has
been gaining from different parts of the world (from New York to the War
destroyed Gaza strip), it became the responsibility of the state to keep the
mystery shrouding the Banksy legend intact. If the British Police say that it
is clueless about Banksy, despite its claims to have arrested Banksy in various
occasions, then we should doubt the mystery solving abilities of such an
efficient policing system, which is supposedly one of the best in the world.
(Myths Unlimited)
The economic world/the corporate world and the political
world are playing hands in glove in protecting the Banksy identity thereby
perpetuating the myth. I do not know whether the United Kingdom gives its
citizens a sort of constitutional right that allows one continue the life of
anonymity. Many of the musicians have stage names and also a sort of fantasy
life style but still they are real people who hold a passport and go through
all the immigration procedures in the foreign lands with their real names and
real personalities. How can we think that Banksy remains incognito and lives
among the people without ever raising suspicion even of a security guard?
(Someone at the Sotheby’s auction venue was gushing that Banksy should have
been around while his painting was getting shredded. Someone could even say
that the trigger was even pulled by him. The most imaginative ones could say
that the Banksy himself must have been bidding for his works.)
As an art critic and historian, I do believe in the works of
Banksy; but I keep asking this question, had it not been the mystery around his
personality, would his works have raised the curiosity quotient among the art
loving people all over the world? Banksy has been instrumental in making
graffiti art fashionable and I always see his parallel in the rapper Eminem who
adopted rapping and made it big more than Tupac, Biggie, Ice Cube or 50 Cent
could do. As Eminem gave rapping both critical edge and social acceptance,
Banksy took graffiti art by force from the Black radicals and aesthetically
polished it and added the much wanted mysterious quotient with an incognito
signature. While the graffiti vandalism of the Black and the Punk invited
punitive actions, the graffiti of Banksy raised curiosity for its sophisticated
aesthetics that played up visual pun and black humor. While Banksy kept the
steam of socio-political critique on in his graffiti, he took off the violent
edge of the vandalizing types of graffiti. Basquiat had transported graffiti to
canvases and Banksy took the route of public walls to reach the conventional
canvases.
The gasping in the auction house upon seeing the shredding
of the canvas by Banksy was choreographed and controlled. It was a controlled
implosion as we had seen in the collapse of the twin towers, minus its
calamities. Yes, as disaster capitalism always does, the collapse of twin
towers resulted into the destruction of the countries elsewhere which paved the
way for the realtors to spread their foot prints all over those countries, the
shredding of a work of willingly by the author himself in fact has increased
its price by several folds. If it had been taken for One Million Pounds, Banksy
later claimed five millions for the shredded work. The whole affair is a
classic example of poetry as willing suspension of disbelief. All the players
willingly suspend their disbelief and pretend that it was a ‘prank’ played by
Banksy himself. But they do not accept the fact that it was a prank well-choreographed
and played by all the parties involved. May be that is what we do today, like
children playing the game of invisibility. Some children decide to make one of
them invisible and pretend that he is not seen at all even when an unsuspecting
child says that he could see one; or otherwise, they pretend they someone when
there is none. This game in the auction house takes the art players into a
state of infancy where they are willing to make someone visible or invisible.
The game is all fun so long it yields millions of dollars. And Banksy is the
most willing player of all in this game.
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