I dont know if this is good or bad … i mean i always wanted to know who this mysterious artist was and what he looked like, but now i wonder if thats really necessary… For those who dont know Banksy, he is Britain’s most celebrated anonymous graffiti artist. His signature style and imagery has had tremendous visual and political impact. I remember seeing my first Banksy at ‘Revolo’ on Chapel St. when my housemate Peter first introduced me to his work… Here is a quote from the following link in which Jamaican underground photojournalist types claim to unmask Banksy (scroll down towards the end of the page to see pictures which are allegedly of Banksy).. does this mean the end of graffiti ??
Banksy’s attitude to brands is ambivalent – like Naomi Klein, he opposes corporate branding and has become his own brand in the process……Over the past couple of years the very brands he despises have approached him to do advertising campaigns for them. Is there work he would turn down on principle? “Yeah, I’ve turned down four Nike jobs now. Every new campaign they email me to ask me to do something about it. I haven’t done any of those jobs. The list of jobs I haven’t done now is so much bigger than the list of jobs I have done. It’s like a reverse CV, kinda weird. Nike have offered me mad money for doing stuff.” What’s mad money? “A lot of money!” he says bashfully. Why did he turn it down? “Because I don’t need the money and I don’t like children working their fingers to the bone for nothing. I like that Jeremy Hardy line: ‘My 11-year-old daughter asked me for a pair of trainers the other day. I said, ‘Well, you’re 11, make ‘em yourself.’ I want to avoid that shit if at all possible.”"Something to spray” : 7/17/03 The Guardian