Banksy

I bet you’re wondering where Ringwood is? I was, I’d never head of the town of Ringwood in Hampshire prior to reading this article in the Salisbury Journal.

It seems the above image has been stenciled in the archway leading into Friday’s Cross and it is thought to pay tribute to local character Roy Carter, known as Catweazle or Quack Quack, who died last year.

To quote the Salisbury Journal;

” Mr Carter was a familiar sight riding his bike around the town and popping into shops to chat with staff and customers.

He also attended all the town’s major events and one year a group of residents even took part in the annual carnival processions all dressed as “Catweazle”.

Over 100 people paid their last respects at his funeral in Ringwood last January and many paid tribute to him online through the Facebook networking website.”

The Journal continues to view familar views of those where Banksy graffiti has been spotted – some are positive and some are negative. One thing is sure of this piece though, it’s a dead ringer for Banksy work if nothing else…. imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Six prints of supermodel Kate Moss, estimated to fetch £150,000 have failed to sell the BBC is reporting.

The prints in question were originally part of a limited edition screen print run of just 20. As a result of this complete sets of the Banksy Kate Moss prints are rare.

They were being auctioned alongside other Banksy works as part of Bonhams auction house’s Urban Art Sale.

Gareth Williams, head of Bonhams urban art department, said: “The urban art market remains buoyant judging by the interest this sale has aroused once more and we are pleased to continue to offer significant works by the most important artists in this field.”

Lindsey Howald @ The Columbia Tribune has an excellent piece of Banksy work, particularly the pieces in America published today.

She compares Banksy in her piece do a modern day Marcel Duchamp and covers some of his American pieces.

Banksy graffiti in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, 2005.

As controversy spiraled this week over the decision by the British reality-TV celebrity and cancer victim Jade Goody to have her last days documented on camera, a smaller debate was bubbling over who created the mural of Goody that appeared in North London on Wednesday night, and what it meant.

The mural depicts Goody’s head with a pound sign branded on it and vultures circling above with the words “This is England” accompanying it. The black and red coloring of the mural and the strong stencil style led some journalists to speculate that the work might be that of Banksy, the British graffiti artist whose pieces now sell for high prices at auction.

The mural “may be the proof that even renowned graffiti artist Banksy has a strong message about her plight,” the British tabloid The Daily Mail wrote. “Clearly designed in the style of the artist, who is one of the art world’s most famous names, it focuses on how her illness has turned into a huge money spinner.”

The online blog for The London Paper, a popular free daily newspaper, agreed: “A stenciled mural that launches a stinging attack on the way Jade Goody’s cancer battle has been treated by the media has got Londoners wondering whether it’s a new Banksy or a Banksy-a-like.”

The graffiti is not Banksy’s, but that of a London stencil artist who said he prefers not to be named. He said he decided to create the mural on Wednesday night as a reaction to the media hype surrounding Goody’s death.
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“It was quite rushed and spontaneous, because I wanted to do it when it was still fresh in people’s minds,” he said in a telephone interview Friday.

“But I think that there is a certain amount of ambiguity in the image. It is an attack on the media and what they have done to her, and an attack on her lack of dignity. But the vultures are not just the media, it is also us, I don’t think we can just point a finger at the media; we read the articles – I think that we are as much to blame.”

The artist said that he chose the wall in Kentish Town, in north London to do the stencil because in a sense it mirrored Goody’s abrupt rise to celebrity status. “I chose the location because quite a lot of celebrities live around there, but it is also beside a council estate – so you get the contrast,” he said. “But also because it’s a wall I like the idea that it will linger in peoples’ minds in a different way as the image starts to fade.”

The artist also said that he liked using the medium of an anonymous graffiti work to portray the extreme level of self-branding that characterized Goody’s rise to celebrity. “Everything’s brandable – even the whole concept of graffiti, with Banksy – Jade Goody’s become a piece of meat,” he said.

The artist, who has not tagged his work, said that his name is “irrelevant” as it would lead to the same kind of branding that he is trying to satirize.

“If she ever had a soul then it’s been completely lost,” he said. “It’s like a sort of horrible Grimm’s Fairy Tale and it’s reached it’s climax.”#

Source: IHT

Have you heard of Solveig? She’s only ten years old and is already being tipped as ‘the next Banksy’.

She’s been creating quirky graffiti art since she was eight years old and over the last few days has been generating quite a buzz around her graffiti art, despite being featured in magazines like graphotism already.