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Sep 18

Banksy "Barely Legal"

Collection

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Went to the much hyped Banksy show barely Legal over the weekend. Banksy is an UK graffiti artist/public prankster who's known for humorous/political graffiti in cities and prank stunts (ex: sneak in his own paintings and hang them next to other artworks in famous museums, switch out Paris Hilton's album with his own remix...etc etc). The show was held in a warehouse at Downtown LA for 3 days. I went on Saturday with Jonathan and Sunday again with Freda. Both times we were lucky enough to beat the crowd and just walk right in without queueing.

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Everyone is talking about the large, live, painted elephant in the show. This red and gold elephant is definitely NOT ignored (based on the English idiom "Elephant in the room": an obvious truth that is being ignored). There were kids and families there aweing it as if it's the zoo or something. Of course such "animal cruelty" angered many, due to complaints/pressure the elephant wasn't painted on Sunday. Cruelty or not aside, in my opinion it's less effective without the paint which mirrored the painted wall paper on the walls next to the elephant.

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These paintings where he painted over or add-onto classical paintings are pretty funny. It'll be great to see them next to famous classical paintings in the Metropolitan museum of art.

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His stencil graffiti paintings are definitely cool, especially when they're in large scale. Though it'll be greater if they're in "context", i.e. graffiti on specific street or buildings in LA!

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DSC01569.jpgWhat I found the most interesting were the displays of his original sketches and collages, and the video that document some of his public stunts (ex: sneaking his paintings into museum, sneak in a Guantanamo Bay prisonor dressing blow up doll next to a Disneyland ride, placing a disect phone booth in the middle of the street, replacing Paris Hilton's album with his "tampered" version...etc)

And I didn't see it, but it certainly make sense someone Banskied it back to the Bansky show!

More photos at my Flickr.

Joan | September 18, 2006 07:11 PM


Comments:

So funny!!! I like the composition one and the newspaper one...I love simple-minded jokes. ^^;;

seat | September 21, 2006 02:05 AM

hopefully the paint he used on the elephant was non-toxic...^^;; but it does make a huge impression!!

tomoko | September 20, 2006 06:27 PM

Haha the girl abducted by McDonald & Mickey one was interesting! Sale ends today looks like manga. The elephant leaves the strongest impression though, he looks like a giant chunk of red meat ^^;;;;

RP | September 20, 2006 02:24 AM