shut up about banksy

I think you conveyed the anger and frustration of the graffiti artists you wanted to represent very well, but if you were trying to sway the opinion of more neutral audiences (with a superficial appreciation for "white street art" like those done by banksy), I think there's room for improvement. I mean, I can entirely believe that racial privilege has helped white street artists screw over their less fortunate counterparts (like it does in every other facet of society), but on the whole the writing seems more focused on venting than explaining and convincing. Which is fine, you know, I just think the latter purposes would have helped understanding of your work better.

As it is, I'm not entirely sure what the main focus of the project is. The description up top says it's to show the "pass" given to white street artists on account of racial privilege, and that's clearly done in the artwork you made, but the writing in the project seems more nebulous on that front. Starting with the title, it sounds like a more specific hate on Banksy. After reading the description, my understanding broadens - perhaps Banksy is the epitome of racial privilege in graffiti/street art.

After the first two paragraphs, however, I'm starting to wonder if it's not so much "fuck Banksy" as it is "fuck the racism prevalent especially in graffiti/street art. It's frustrating to see others cruise by on things like race and heritage, but to actively hate on those who benefit passively from it seems rather strong. Perhaps Banksy has actively harmed other artists and is getting away with it on account of their race? (Which I'm just slightly confused by, since I thought Banksy's identity was supposedly anonymous. I mean, you can say this or that about skin colour from the footage but that seems itself somewhat ironically racist to me.) I read on.

So, it seems there are the following gripes against Banksy..

- he achieved fame doing things others have done before, and presumably these others are of a more disenfranchised race and therefore Banksy's success seems built on racial privilege. This could be true - but the writing simply states it rather than show why. It's not inconceivable that other artists' work and Banksy's work while, sharing the same message, were delivered differently. And that Banksy's work was better-received for reasons other than "he is probably white". It could even be that "Banksy is white, and this has helped him make the messages in his works more palatable to the rich/authoritative/privileged audiences that have the social and economic power to elevate his status as a street artist.

- he doesn't respect the historical lineage of graffiti. I'm not too sure about this one - not being a huge fan of needless following of tradition myself, I don't exactly understand just yet why this is so important. There's a graffiti culture out there, sure, with its history and traditions, but if some person wants to put up a work on public property I don't see why they have to buy into the existing group known for doing such things in order to do it.

- reading the phone chat, I might be getting a clearer idea - maybe white street artists are experiencing less risk in their graffiti/street art sprees, and hence the less privileged artists have a disadvantage when a fight breaks out over painting over each other's works? This seems to have expanded into more general discussion on race and less on Banksy specifically. I find it slightly amusing considering defacing public property isn't legal exactly to begin with.

- the discussion segues into some lady's stunt in bushwick. I'm definitely kind of thrown as to the direction of the writing at this point, but maybe hating on Banksy specifically was never the main point to begin with?

- Banksy messed up someone else's graffiti. Is this based on racial lines? It's not immediately apparent from the conversation.

(OK this has gotten kinda long I'll just end it here for now)

(and we're back!)
Sorry for how long this is getting to be, by the way - it just doesn't seem like the kind of topic you can say a few words about and then move on.

So generally speaking, I'm not sure if the project is as Banksy-centric as the title suggests, and if it was meant to be more so, I think a more detailed illustration of his transgressions against less privileged races in the graffiti/street art scene would have been helpful. It would also have been great to see some examples of graffiti and street artists you feel are underrated, and do a quick comparison of their work against Banksy's (or any other artist you dislike for apparently earning undeservedly good reputation among the masses/privileged). Even a bit would be good, it would depict the unfairness in greater clarity and objectivity than just claiming it is so. Not many have an educated and strong opinion on the graffiti/street art scene, and at least I think I would have benefited much more from reading this if given more show over tell. Short case studies on the transgressions, for example with King Robbo, an explanation of how racial divide fueled this conflict. Something more digested and and processed than just the screenshots of conversations with others. I know this isn't a project on illuminating the audience as to how racial privilege has skewed graffiti/street art, but with just those tweaks I think the intent and presentation of the project could be better understood and appreciated.

I'm recommending this project, since I'd like to hear you speak more on the subject. Thanks for making this! It inspired me to air some of my own grievances with the media I encounter.

Hi Azer,

Thanks for the in-depth feedback, I just kinda wanted to respond a bit even though I'm not quite done and I'm planning to address some of what you mentioned.
First off, this work is definitely not meant to sway someone with a more neutral standing. I also intentionally left the writing very standoff-ish I was admittedly a little angry after reading some of the articles and figured I would have time to tone it down later. Again, pretty important to note that this isn't a final iteration at all.
Also, I'm pretty limited on space for a lot of meaningful discourse about this subject, though I'm considering adding a small document that takes a more explanatory stance. Given the space constraint, I opted to try to convey the emotional experience I had while working on it.
You were actually 100% correct that my discussion expands far beyond Banksy (who I would absolutely argue is white, given what we saw of him). Titling the project "fuck banksy" was definitely more of a personal reaction than the rest of the work as I personally don't like the content of Banksy's work, but that does seem to be relatively unrelated to the message I was trying to send. I might yet change it to reflect a more accurate picture of what I was trying to achieve.
Admittedly, this project is growing in scope a bit, though the actual work (the 6 images) are probably done. I definitely want to shift the focus of my first couple sections to discuss more about the effects of street art in the style of Banksy and Fairey as a form primarily practiced by white artists on traditional graffiti as a subculture that spans class and race lines, but is generally percieved as a purely the work of poor kids of color. I've been doing a fair bit of research thanks to a friend who has ties to the NYC graf scene, and it's clear to me even looking over my written work this morning that I'm not presenting this information the way it deserves.
Regarding the Bushwick article, some quick backstory is that the director/organizer/person in charge of Bushwick Flea had a self-described street artist put up the yarn mural on the wall of a black man's home, with the justification that the wall had been very ugly before and he was doing them a favor, but in the process provided a clear look at the entitlement of white artists feeling that they're doing a service to the black community members. Between the girl painting on her own paper and this story, I think I more wanted to provide two ends of the spectrum - a brown woman painting legally but being percieved as a vandal by cops and facing serious legal ramifications for it, and a white man vehemently arguing that the illegally placed artwork is a benefit to the community and not facing any sort of life-affecting consequences for it.
There's definitely lots of discussion to be had here, and I really hope that I get to present! Glad to hear I helped you speak out more in your work as well! :)

Hey, I think you did a great job with conveying your thoughts and feelings on the matter at hand. It was very well-expressed, if explicit. I think actually your use of quotes, despite the wording, gives off a very genuine feel, and I think it is very relatable for the people who do graffiti and have problems with "street art". However, I find myself agreeing with Azer that this might actually alienate a large audience portion, specifically the white middle to upper class. Because you use strong words that specifically target that audience as being over-privileged, that audience is not likely to give much stock to this type of art. Definitely people with neutral or similar opinions I think you love your artwork, but I don't think it would change the minds of too many of the white middle-upper class audience, who are really the ones I think you are trying to talk to. I really love the set-up by the way. It really explained why you were making the artwork, and really helped me understand why you used such strong language and contrastive colors in your works. I think the best and most important part of your piece is really the introduction. The art itself was very simple, crisp, concise, and the techniques you used, bolding and italisizing certain words for emphasis and using different colors to express different opinions and the type of feeling exhibited by the speaker was brilliantly elegant I think. The simplicity of your work makes it simple to say, put on a T-shirt to display or share with others. I think that your best works were the ones with fewer words though. Reading through the paragraphs of conversation, while illuminating, is not quite as attention-grabbing as a couple of sentences with emphasis on a few words that pop out. All in all? I think with was a wonderful work! Good job!