Banksy is a graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter based in England. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artisitc works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. He is known for his contempt for the government in labelling graffiti as vandalism, displaying his art on public surfaces, even going as far as to build physical prop pieces. Kanksy onced characterized graffiti as a form of underclass “revenge,” or guerilla warfare that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy. The components of the human condition that his works commonly critique are greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair, absurdity, and alienation. Peter Gibson, a spokesman for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy’s work is simple vandalism, and Diane Shakespeare, an official for the same organization, was quoted saying: “We are concerned that Banksy’s street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism.” He has not been convicted of any crimes just yet because his identity is not certain. So there is a debate on whether his work is art of vandalism. I think he is a great artist and and is just taking a stand for what he believes in.
