Friday 2 March 2012

In which Banksy grants me the right to deface his daubings

Celebrity vandal, Banksy has been proclaiming his bewildering world view to the applause of the usual right-on audience (from where I've lifted the wall dauber's quote below):

Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

My conclusion from this is that we cannot limit this presumption of rights to advertising - it must apply to any message in a public space that "gives you no choice whether you see it or not".  I don't ask to see Banksy's twee, ever-so-witty, pseudo-political cleverness yet by choosing graffiti as a medium he imposes it on me without me choosing to see it.

So on his logic, I shall be pasting advertising slogans onto his witty daubs at the next opportunity!

And while we're about it, remember that Banksy is a mere workman besides the genius that was "The Master of Paddington":

"Near at hand is far away in images of elsewhere"

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1 comment:

Lysistrata said...

Interesting. Bradford used to have a great sign on the old railway wall at the top of Great Horton Road: 'Away Rumpelstiltskin Thy Name is World War 3'. It was there for years from about 1965.

I think it was all in badly painted capitals but capitals look unduly shouty in a blog comment.

There was also a nice large graffiti for some months on the doors of what is now the Museum of Photography etc. Because when it was first built in the 1960s (as a theatre because they'd knocked an old theatre down to build the ice rink block and it was some sort of planning deal)it was empty for some years, a little like the Bradford hole is now.

It simply said 'Opening soon'.
I should know, because I was the one who painted it.

One more memory. Before the old Mechanics Institute was demolished, it was overnight wrapped in a banner that said something like: 'Avocado bathroom suite? No thanks, I've already had one from Mr. Poulson'.

This of course was a reference to the planning deals done between Mr. Poulson, T.Dan Smith, and the then Chief Exec(?) of Bradford Council, a certain Mr. Eric Newby.

Politicians were bought very cheaply in those days.