First published in Great Britain in 2012 under the imprint of Carpet Bombing Culture
Compiled and edited to Gary Shove
Words by Patrick Potter
Designed by Lee Crutchley
This coffee table book is glossy and beautiful. There are no page numbers. The creators warn that not all images within the book can be verified as the work of Banksy. This is a book of explanation and light worship; not critique. Some critics are quoted and some rival work is shown. This would be a good book for people interested in learning more about how art reflects and critiques our culture. What follows is a combination of the chapter titles and snippets of Banksy interviews plus some wording by the author, Patrick Potter.
“Queue here to say books about Banksy aren’t as good as they used to be.”
Diss-claimer
“If you cannot win, knock over the table.”
You are an acceptable level of threat (If you were not, you would know about it)
Banksy Basics (The Beginners Guide)
To Buff or Not to Buff? (That is the Question)
The Power of Denial “Never underestimate the power of denial.” (AKA–Why we don’t want to know.)
Vandal Incorporated (Spreading the Gospel)
“Like Banksy, the problem for people who dream of a better world, is that they have to live in this one.”
Banecdotes #1: Banksy at the South Bank Awards, gets smashed, eats all the canapes
It is unclear who wrote this poem-like-thing, but I like it:
Write your name.
The first thing they teach you at school.
Write your name.
Sign for your first bank account.
Write your name.
At the top of your exam paper.
Write your name.
One the back of your bedroom door with a drippy pen.
Write your name.
To log in to Facebook.
Write your name.
Write your name.
Write your name.
As if you existed.
As if you were unique.
As if you were separate.
In your name.
The things you own are in your name.
Your name.
That which owns, that part of you which may possess things.
And that part of you that possesses your crimes
And your crimes against possession.
Write your name on the police report.
Write your name on the caution.
Your name was written on you.
Write your name.
One Nation Under CCTV (Pop Quiz!)
“I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protet me.”
Big Brother is Watching You (You Can’t Fool the Children of the (CCTV) Revolution)
Welcome to the Hood (Art and rebellion)
Veteran art critic Brian Sewell wrote, “He is a complete clown and what he does has absolutely nothing to do with art.”
“Dear Brian, when criticising art in return for money,.please try to remember who the parasite is in this relationship.”
Everybody is in the Place (In My Opinion)
Banecdotes #2: Banksy does all his own work, or not
“Live the dream. Endure the nightmare.”
NOLA Rising (Banksy vs. The Grey Ghost)
“I came to New Orleans to do battle with the Grey Ghost, a notorious vigilante who’s been systematically painting over any graffiti he can find with the same shade of grey paint since 1997. Consequently he’s done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurrican could ever hope to achieve.”
Banecdotes #3: Free the Dolphin
Banksy Taken Out of Context (Have Powertools will Travel)
“Ah, that’s the key to graffiti, the positioning.” –Banksy
Patrick Potter: “Well, think about it; if you write your name on your own living room wall, it’s not graffiti, it’s interior design. Positioning can’t get more crucial than that. Where it is determines what it is.
(Surely, graffiti on a legal wall is actually a mural?)
“So much of Banksy’s street art depends on its position to make it really work. Some like ‘This Looks a Bit Like an Elephant’ depend entirely on location for effect. Some get a great punchline out of a strange location, such as the Penguins at Barcelona Zoo. Some are just, well, in the right place and at the right time, such as his ‘I don’t believe in anything, I’m just here for the violence’ placards at the 2003 May-Day march in London.”
How to Turn Invisible (Karma and the Urban Chameleon)
“You will need: a high visibility vest, a hard hat, a clipboard, some business cards, an unmarked van.
Animal Army (Hasta La Vista Heavy Weaponry)
In 2006, Charlie Brooker for Guardian Online wrote, “Banksy is clearly a guffhead of massive proportions, yet he’s often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why?”
Unknown reply: “Mr. Brooker, cutting edge gatekeeper, is obviously stunned by the idiocy of the general public. He’s right of course. We can all agree on one thing: Everyone else is an idiot.”
The Nakodar Curry House Miracle (It’s Twice as Spice)
“The poet produces poems. The painter produces paintings. The criminal produces crimes. If you can do all three at once, you’ll really confuse the shit out of them.”
Blatantprovocation
Banecdotes #4: A Brief History of Stencil Graffiti
“Crime against property is not real crime.”
“There are four basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge.”
Handbags at Dawn (Banksy vs. Robbo)
“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss…”–Banksy
Vandalism Vandalized (Banksy’s Silent Disco)
Cash for Credibility (Buying into the counter culture)
Banecdotes #5: Who Let the Dogs Out?
“Sometimes the right thing to do…is the wrong thing.”
Belly of the Beast (Has Banksy got his heart set on breaking America?)
Banecdotes #6: Light Group elated over Possible Banksy Piss Take
First Time as Property Damage (Second Time As Theft)
“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.”
Oh Little Town (Of Bethlehem)
The Art of Resistance (Where next for Palestine?)
Swing Low Sweet Charity (Robbing the Rich to Pay the Poor)
“Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realize that reciting red Indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking muppet.”
Banecdotes #7: Thieving Banksy
“Never play.”
Bankstonbury Festival (Don’t Worthy–Be Hippy)
Banecdotes #8: Hanging out with Danger Mouse
Toxic Love (I’m Addicted to You)
Rise up! Occupy! No Banks, No Borders, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 100 [dollars] (Games the 99% Play)
“All action and no theory: Tox. The middle ground: Banksy. All theory and no action: You?”
The Great Art Swindle (Subverting the Kunst Market)
“People in despair buy more shit.”–Potter
“Graffiti doesn’t always spoil buildings. In fact, it’s the only way to improve a lot of them. In the space of a few hours with a couple of hundred cans of paint, I’m hoping we can transform a dark, forgotten filth pit into an oasis of beautiful art–in a dark, forgotten filth pit.”
Can It (Gentrify that!!!)
Banecdotes #9: The real meaning of Christmas
“If you want to reach the whole world you have to make the song simple.”
Building Castles in the Sky (The other side)
“The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit…The people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff…any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours, it belongs to you, it’s yours to take, rearrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.”
Watching You, Watching Me (or how to be famous for 15 minutes)
“Over the counter culture.”
“Treat this book like soft porn–inspiration for action. Cheer if you want. Boo if you want. You’re still just the audience.”
Originality (Remembering What you Heard. Forgetting Where you Heard It)
(Dr. Laurence J. Peter)
“It’s a sick world.”
Feel Afraid, Feel Very Afraid (Social Control and The Suffragette)
Meta Tagging (WTF)
Any Last Words? (The Crux of the Matter)
Better Out Than In
Tattooed Professor 