Why go to such an extreme to put your beliefs out there? Why risk being fined or even arrested just to say that you think Bush is a failure? Just ask any person who is involved in political activism through graffiti, and they will answer without hesitation.
Michael Taussig speaks on instituting Terror on a community in his piece Terror As Usual: Walter Benjamins Theory of History as State of Siege. He writes on the idea of poverty in the world in saying, "People like you and me close their eyes to it, in a manner ofspeaking, but suddenly an unanticipated event occurs, perhaps a dramatic orpoignant or ugly one, and the normality of the abnormal is shown for what itis" (Taussig 18). Banksy wants to be that "sudden and unanticipated event" that occurs in society that makes people think. Arguably, this is what political activism through urban art is about--getting a reaction out of people to make a change.
There is not enough random and unnexpected occurances in the world, and far not enough for people to take notice of something that is wrong in order to take a stand. Therefore, a portrait painted on a public space gets that rise out of people and gets people thinking. Even if they are in dissagreeance with the artist, they still are given a chance to think about their opinions on sociological or political issues.
Stencils from C215 in Rome, Italy
16 years ago
