A Collection of Graffiti Locations & Photographs in London, mainly of Banksy's street work:
- 3 London Tours
- 65 Detailed Graffiti Locations
- Over 100 Colour Photographs
Also including mentions of Eine, Faile, El Chivo, Arofish, Space Invader, Blek Le Rat, D*face, and Shepard Fairey / Obey.
Do you fancy wandering the streets of London looking for graffiti, especially that from Banksy?
Or do you prefer just sitting at home in your comfy chair, looking at photos of his street work and reading a bit about them?
This book lets you do either. Follow the author's street tours or make your own DIY tour. Collect all the locations like a geek, or just wander around a bit, stop at pubs, have a fag, and hope to cop a glance into a strip joint (as one tour member proudly told the author they had)
Wall and Piece
Author: Banksy
Artistic genius, political activist, painter and decorator, mythic legend or notorious graffiti artist? The work of Banksy is unmistakable, except may be when it's squatting in the Tate or New York's Metropolitan Museum. Banksy is responsible for decorating the streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cites throughout the world. Witty and subversive, his stencils show monkeys with weapons of mass destruction, policeman with smiley faces, rats with drills, and umbrellas. If you look hard enough you'll find your own. His statements, incitements, ironies and epigrams are by turns intelligent and cheeky comments on everything from the monarchy and capitalism to the war in Iraq and farm animals. His identity remains unknown, but his work is prolific. And now for the first time, he's putting together the best of his work - old and new in a fully illustrated colour volume.
Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall
Robin Banksy
Travel through any urban environment and you will see much graffiti. Most of it can be seen as mindless and an act of vandalism, but that is missing the point. Some artists strive to elevate the form or at least make the viewer think. Bansky is one such person. His graffiti can be found around the East End and is both playful and astute in it's targets. The book is pocket sized and should be seen as documentary proof images that probably no longer exists. The temporary nature of the form means that these striking pieces will usually be removed fairly quickly, whilst our minds are allowed to be polluted by advertising hoardings that are far more damaging. If spray can art is of interest to you, get this booklet. If not, you may be lucky enough to walk past one of his works in the future. Give it a second glance.
Cut It Out: Banksy: Vol 3
Robin Banksy
Paperback 52 pages (December 14, 2004)
Publisher: Weapons Of Mass Disruption
Existencilism
Author: Robin Banksy
Another Banksy booklet. But this time round his humour is much more evident. He seems to be getting around and his work pops up all over the place. Good! The latest work is again documented here and perhaps no longer exists. At least you can't accuse him of being precious about his work.
Like his last booklet, Banksy has used both subtlety and in yer face graffismo to make his point. The work here is both amusing and subversive, informative and knowing. I love it. Those who cannot understand the aesthetic of it will glibly accuse him of vandalism or dismiss the message. Perhaps they would never understand anyway. Now we just wait for the advertising agencies to co-opt this media and make it mainstream?
