Banksy: more than graffiti

Najiba Abdellaoui speaks out about what she loves about Banksy’s art

A crack in the Israeli wall showing a bounty island An activist who throws flowers instead of stones

"You’ve never heard of Banksy? No way!" was my artistic friend's horrified reaction when I admitted to not knowing much about this apparently famous graffiti artist. After this, my friend wouldn't rest until I knew all of his favourite Banksy pieces. Now they are etched in my mind, along with a couple of my own favourites and endless discussions about the meaning behind every individual piece.

An activist who throws flowers instead of stones, soldiers secretly painting peace signs on the wall, an anarchist rat, a crack in the Israeli wall showing a bounty island, an angelic bum drinking alcohol on the pavement. Do any of these images ring a bell? They’re all Banksy's doing.

In our busy world the city streets are, for most, just a way to get to work or the gym, the journey home or the route to a club to meet up with friends. For Banksy, an anonymous British graffiti artist, however, they are his canvas. They are the medium for his art and their multi-layered messages and his method to raise awareness and trigger discussions about controversial issues like war, oppression, ethics and politics.

In today's world where artists might be tempted to follow their wallets rather than their ideologies, he uses his art as a weapon of awareness and change. By adding his own, often humorous, twist to common images and situations he urges passers-by to see the absurdity in what is often overlooked or seen as normal. In a society where many seem to have lost a notion of the power of the individual, Banksy's art forces people to stop and think.

Almost nobody knows Banksy's real name, as he tries his best to stay anonymous. This is a message in itself; his art is not about him but about the meaning he is trying to convey, encouraging us to question the capitalist society in which we live.

Some of Banksy's pieces are now being sold for record amounts of money, but despite his fame, Banksy remains a graffiti artist and his art, when it appears on public spaces, remains illegal. Banksy is in danger of being fined or even jailed for 'defacing' public spaces and private property because, for a lot of people, graffiti is vandalism.
Diane Shakespeare from Keep Britain Tidy expressed the opinion of many, stating that "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism."

As far as I'm concerned, Banksy's graffiti shouldn't be a crime. Banksy's work shows that graffiti has the potential to draw attention to issues and help stop people going about their busy lives ignoring what's important. Maybe if we legalized graffiti, the streets would become a network of wake-up calls, a gallery of thoughts and feelings, rather than a depressing collection of grey buildings that fill our eyes while we rush from A to B.