It seems
Banksy graf pieces have become popular targets for defiling. Three months ago in
New York City,
Banksy was 'performing' his
Better Out Than In gig - whereby each day at some unannounced location he would put up a single new graffiti or graf 'installation'. His project would last for one month. Even before he had finished his roving exhibition, at least four of his pieces had been damaged, for the most part, by other graffiti artists, who most certainly were not getting
up to a million dollars for the sale of
their spraypainting efforts (as did
Banksy recently).
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The "Before & After" pics of the painted-over Banksy graffiti piece in Utah.
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- Received as unattributed works - all rights to copyright holder, if any.
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And again, early last month, the two remaining (of the original four)
Banksy pieces in
Park City, Utah were damaged by a person(s) unknown.
Banksy put up those pieces at the time his film
Exit Through The Gift Shop was being screened there at the
Sundance Film Festival in
2010. One of the remaining pieces was entirely obliterated (see above), while the other was protected from noticeable damage by the protective glass covering.
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This Banksy piece was protected from damage by the glass window covering. The shattered glass is barely visible in the pic.
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- Received as unattributed works - all rights to copyright holder, if any.
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A great deal has been made of this "
vandalism of vandalism", to include
Park City television news crews interviewing shop owners, people on the street and policemen. But to the graf artist, this seems to be a bit of "
created controversy" - any graf artist with any street experience at all (and this would include
Banksy) knows of the extremely temporary nature of graffiti. Rarely does a piece of graffiti last more than a year or two (and usually much less than that) - usually by overpainting by other graf artists, but if not, then the weather degrades the works, or a bulldozer removes the structure. Implicit in the definition of graffiti is that it has no guarantee of survival. Additionally, many graf artists are finding it hard to generate any sympathy for
Banksy, especially when they see reproductions of his graffiti selling like hot cakes for
US$ 50 (and up) on
New York street corners.
More power to
Banksy, a true artist in his own right, a sage and humorous observer of our times and condition, and a shrewd businessman. But let's hold off on the phoney remorse, the trumped up controversy and news stories, and the feigned sense of 'great loss' because some graffiti got spraycanned over.
February's Nightlife News 
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