Banksy's Homecoming

My responce to this small and brief piece:

Banksy at Bristol City Museum

I've got a couple of issues to flag up with this exhibition. Firstly, it was my understanding that this show was funded entirely by Banky but in the opening lines of the Guardian piece he was quoted as saying 'This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.' If this is truely the case then Banky's continued tragectory toward the centre and the establishment is a betrayal of the subject he made the crux of his work. I believe once accepted by the establishment he seeks to critique he compromises the quality of his dissent. The mere act of stencilling over a bill board or on the outside of a public gallery is far more incisive at pointing out the gap between rights of access to the means of production of culture and political or cultural hegemony than making a grandieuse gesture like re-curating the gallery in Bristol. He is acknowledging defeat, with out the expressed permission of the market he would be unable to achieve these feets, it really should leave anyone with half a brain thinking, "well... duh!"

I'm saddened to see so many gimmicky flares in this show, the falacy that he is anonymous is yet another function of the market - it maintains his brand. He may be this guy Robin Banks or maybe according to the auto-publishable font of dubious knowledge wikipedia, perhaps he isn't. The fact remains that his brand and artworks are now so heavily invested in that many top collectors and gallerists can not afford to have him unmasked. I don't think Banksy particularly revels in this or enjoys his new found celebrity - it demeans the potentcy of his work, he has always self-merchandised via his books but the cool thing about that was he was actually out there making work, if you saw it with your own eyes it was a massive reward. If you saw it in the book you lost out, you had been had, more fool you for buying into the "Fopp-ish" world of cool.

I think what is needed now is a more considered critical appreciation of the work Banksy produces. Let's not judge him on the magnitude of the gesture but on the quality and integrety of the work. If Banksy has paid for this entire show to be put on he is on the right track, certainly parting company with his Gallery Agent Steve Lazarides would suggest a desire to return to the honest interventionism that he made his name with. In this current environment more than ever we need artists who are willing to show us new ways of understanding the world, who provide effective platforms for discussion and facilitate a means to move forward as a society. Let's stop buying overinflated prints and glossy books and get back out on the streets and search for evidence of enlightenment.