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New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#371

Post by pjc50 »

appreciatorBus wrote: post #310
miketery wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why nationalism? A flag can represent more than a nation. Can be blinded by any "flag" / ideology.

Exactly. Communists are blinded by the flag with the hammer and sickle. Teachers and doctors are blinded by trans ideology and its flag. Examples abound, but wanna transgressor blanksy knows who butters his bread.

> Teachers and doctors are blinded by trans ideology and its flag

You're going to get a bunch of downvotes, but I'm also going to take the time to personally tell you how stupid this is as well.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#372

Post by foldr »

usrnm wrote: post #356
brewdad wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone on HN is still in their 20s.

Banksy has been active since the 90s, definitely already famous in the 00s

As shown by this savage Charlie Brooker takedown: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/22/arts.v...

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#373

Post by spiderfarmer »

WhereIsTheTruth wrote: post #370

For some unknown reasons, the mainstream media wants to make sure i see this Baby, psyop me, one more time

Next Banksy artwork should depict paranoid people who delude themselves to the point where they think everything is about them.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#374

Post by kelnos »

ChoGGi wrote: post #267
actionfromafar wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes?

Whatever flag binds/blinds you.

Or, on the other side of it, you can imagine it's the flag of some group you dislike, one you think is full of ideologues.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#376

Post by card_zero »

leourbina wrote: post #298
arduanika wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the fact that the flag is unadorned (which/whose flag is it?), and the man is unknown, makes me think this statue could be the ultimate Rorschach test This is part of what's obvious. The whole thing, including this oooh aahh Rorschach part, is obvious. It's thoughts that we all had in high school, and it is hack.

And yet here here we all are taking about it. Art is about inciting a response, and he’s done it. Whether we think he’s a hack or not is irrelevant - he has the world’s attention.

Where does the "art is about inciting a response" theory originate from?

I went and looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_art but couldn't find it there. The "anti-essentialist" section is good, though, I think. It has Berys Gaut listing ten properties of art, all of which are nice-to-have but none of which are essential. Then if a piece ticks lots of boxes it's a shoo-in, but if it doesn't tick many of them you can argue about it.

Some of those involve eliciting some sort of response, but you could also have a decorative piece with this combo:

(i) aesthetic, (iv) complex, (v) meaningful, (vi) idiosyncratic, (vii) imaginative, (viii) skillful, (ix) art-shaped, (x) intentional

Which would be 8 out of 10, to which we could add "completely ignorable" and it could still be art. I don't see why attention-grabbing and provocation is important, and it certainly isn't sufficient on its own, plus it's irritating.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#377

Post by kelnos »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #297
hristov wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to make a political message it often helps to be obvious. This way the meaning of your message will not be misinterpreted either intentionally or un-intentionally.

His messages were always the same politically. He was always snubbing his nose at the crown, at the art world and other rich folks who would pay millions of pounds for his art. Back in the day when I discovered him, he came off as a rebel, as most graffiti writers do. Now? He makes millions off his work while still thumbing his nose at capitalism? Doesn't ring the same any more. You can't claim to be fighting against…

> You can't claim to be fighting against the same system that you use to make millions.

It depends on what you do with that money, no?

I'll be one of the first to agree that most rich people have likely gotten where the are by doing at least some immoral or unethical things, and that many of those people try to whitewash their image with philanthropy. But there certainly exist rich people who got there as ethically as one can in this world, and use that money to try to change things.

Sure, there are many fewer of the latter people than the former, but I think it's unfair to automatically assume that "made some money" = "part of the system".

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#378

Post by jb1991 »

tristanj wrote: post #224

I wish Banksy put the statue a block away at the roundabout at the end of Pall Mall instead. The current spot he picked already has several other statues there. The roundabout at the end of Pall Mall is empty, presently rather dull, and would look much nicer with a statue. This is the better spot: https://maps.app.goo.gl/6EmX2jPiaKRNtNtr8 51°30'19.0"N 0°08'16.0"W

I can assure you that they would not have gone through all this enormous effort to quickly install a statue without very careful consideration of the most effective place to do so.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#379

Post by ungreased0675 »

fooqux wrote: post #193
ungreased0675 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one definitely lacks ambition compared to other works. Probably because his other work had a subversive undertone, this one seems sponsored by the powers that be. I also suspect it was installed with cooperation from the local authorities.

I think you took a wildly different interpretation of this art than I did.

It’s not the art itself in a vacuum. If you’re familiar with British politics right now, especially around flags, it provides important context.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#380

Post by pjc50 »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #219
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? This can mean anything. Is waving a Palestinian flag the same as waving an Israeli flag? Where do we draw the line between harmful and productive nationalism? Who exactly is blinded by nationalism? It is vague enough to appear deep to those trying to find something deep but not concrete enough to appear as anything that will stick in people's minds for more than a week. Unfortunately a lot of modern art…

> Is it though? This can mean anything. Is waving a Palestinian flag the same as waving an Israeli flag? Where do we draw the line between harmful and productive nationalism? Who exactly is blinded by nationalism? Clearly it depends on your actual object-level position on the Israel/Palestine conflict. Or in general, what specific nationalisms you mean when you talk about being "blinded by nationalism". And that's th…

It was an extremely funny aspect of the Scottish Independence referendum to see people denouncing "nationalism" from in front of a Union Jack background.
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