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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

#401

Post by rjinman »

zarzavat wrote: post #398
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong disagree. First, like many of the other comments mention, Banksy is known for being clever and witty, but not particularly subtle. But more to the point, while you may think the meaning is a bit obvious, 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. I'm sure there are tons of people thinking "Ha ha, this i…

I'm pretty sure the piece is a commentary on the recent phenomenon of people of a right-wing political orientation hanging up the England flag everywhere , to the consternation of local governments who have to spend money taking them down. From a British perspective there's no ambiguity, flag shagging is a right-wing activity.

Is it? Most people I know who have flags proudly displayed are left wing and their flags are usually one of: the Palestinian flag, the ukrainian flag, the LGBT rainbow flag, or the trans flag.

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

#402

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

kimixa wrote: post #317
forgotusername6 wrote: post #4

I think it's a reasonable statue. But does anyone else think it's a bit obvious, more so than his other work? Like there is no doubt on the meaning at all, it's all right there on the surface level.

I think the sheer number of people below arguing it might not be about nationalism shows this sort of "Obvious" direct work may still be needed.

> I think the sheer number of people below arguing

That says more about "the people below" on HN to me. There's a strong strand of contrarian, pseudo-intellectual sophistry. I.e. it's "clever" to talk yourself out of seeing the obvious.

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

#403

Post by blitzar »

ChoGGi wrote: post #266
tialaramex wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think most of his work is trying for subtle? First thing that came to mind: "Slave Labour" is pretty obvious, it's a kid operating a sewing machine to make Union flags and it was painted on an actual pound shop. Were you unsure of the message? Even something like "Silent Majority" isn't difficult, the comic book "V for Vendetta" makes the exact same point just Banksy painted it as a mural.

Pound shop == dollar store I suppose I should've figured that one out.

Its because we have the metric system over here

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

#404

Post by pjc50 »

blitzar wrote: post #403
ChoGGi wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pound shop == dollar store I suppose I should've figured that one out.

Its because we have the metric system over here

Americans manage a further level of confusion by referring to the "pound sign" as #, rather than £, which isn't in US-ASCII nor on the US-102 keyboard layout.

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

#405

Post by pjc50 »

nickthegreek wrote: post #26
thinkingemote wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it gets people talking which many of those who like it consider to be the primary point. In other words, it's not great public art, it's basically government approved engagement bait or engineered pro-establishment viral messaging and it's very successful at that! (but it doesn't inspire and elevate that art should aspire to)

> engineered pro-establishment viral messaging I don’t understand this. What speaks pro-establishment in this piece?

I would like people to be clearer what they mean by "establishment" here, because that sort of person tends to think of a stockbroker who went to Dulwich as "anti-establishment".

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

#406

Post by danw1979 »

rjinman wrote: post #401
zarzavat wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure the piece is a commentary on the recent phenomenon of people of a right-wing political orientation hanging up the England flag everywhere , to the consternation of local governments who have to spend money taking them down. From a British perspective there's no ambiguity, flag shagging is a right-wing activity.

Is it? Most people I know who have flags proudly displayed are left wing and their flags are usually one of: the Palestinian flag, the ukrainian flag, the LGBT rainbow flag, or the trans flag.

He’s a British artist, the sculpture is in London and the phenomenon of raising of St George’s Cross on every lamppost on every roundabout is a recent initiative of the British right. Most people will be linking the statement of this sculpture to this activity.

(I’m more likely to see the white rose of the House of York in “opposition” to the flag shaggers than a rainbow or anything else, in my neck of the woods, but there’s only a few of these flying)

I do like the wider interpretation though, that any ideology can blind you.

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

#407

Post by pydry »

foldr wrote: post #372
usrnm wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

This reads more puerile and jealous than savage.

It's got just the right mix of highbrow disdain, unironic self righteousness and naughty language to titillate the average guardian reader though.

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

#408

Post by gopperl »

kelnos wrote: post #393
gopperl wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> I can feel 'fortunate' that my parents got me the bike I really wanted for Christmas, but there's no randomness in my parents working overtime and budgeting responsibly that made it possible. Correct. But there is randomness, or luck, or whatever you want to call it, that you were born to parents who worked overtime and budgeted responsibly so that you could have nice things. You could just have easily been born to…

>But there is randomness, or luck, or whatever you want to call it, that you were born to parents who worked overtime and budgeted responsibly so that you could have nice things...

I disagree with this view and I think it's harmful. Look at it from the perspective of the parents. There is no luck or randomness involved in their responsibility and discipline to build a happy and stable home, and of course there's no randomness or luck involved in them doing the action that created me. It is impossible that I could have been born to a broke drug addict in Bolivia. I could only ever have been born to my parents.

>but you did not contribute to the achievements of your ancestors

Why should this exclude me from being proud of my people and our history? Why shouldn't I be proud of who I am, as part of that great story, and where we are and where we are headed? Every part of my modern life is a result of wars won, famines survived, breakthroughs achieved, phenomena discovered, nature harnessed, etc etc. Consider, too, that I am literally an achievement of my ancestors; my DNA carries all of this history and progression within me.

Why shouldn't I be proud of who we are? It seems that only people who hate us want me to abandon my identity for deracinated nihilism, which only motivates me further towards the opposite extreme.

Go tell a Native American to completely abandon their ethnic identity, sever connection with their ancestry, and forego any sense of pride in the history and culture of their people on your basis that they had no direct role in its creation. Remind them of the shame and horror of their crimes against my people: the scalping, pedophilia, gang-rape, torture, cannibalism, etc.

Of course, you would not dare. This is a propaganda that you reserve only for my family. We unapologetically reject it. You should too.

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

#409

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

celticninja wrote: post #182
nephihaha wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? The flag is black, so could be a variety of things, not necessarily even a national flag. Just a flag in a march. (Anarchism uses a black flag.)

The guy is walking off a cliff and he is blinded by the flag. I assume it is a commentary on Brexit. It is just short of a decade since that vote. Nationalism blinded people and they did something stupid. Not dissimilar to what is going on in the US too.

> I assume it is a commentary on Brexit.

I feel more that it is a commentary on "blind nationalism" of which Brexit is one example, but not the only one, or the most recent. Brexit may be "over" now, but the mindset is still very much with us in the UK and elsewhere. In other words, any successful art relates to more than one specific situation, and allows more than one reading.

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