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

smithsonianmag.com

511–520 of 615 posts

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

#511

Banksy is the patron saint of the “I’m 13 and this is deep” mentality.

He's also king of the "I'll criticize the west but I'll turn a blind-eye to non-democratic countries' wrongdoings" . A trait shared with virtually all intellectuals and artists in the west. There are fights worth fighting: for example there are 300 million women alive who have undergone forced genital mutilation. 300 million ain't cheap change. There are also hundreds of millions of people who applauded the killing o…

He's a Brit mostly putting art in Britain and so it's naturally that way focused. I've no info what his views would be on forced genital mutilation - probably against but not his area of art like most people.

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

#512

The final desperate shivers of a dying worldview, thats financially and socially so detached from the rest of the nation they couldn't even grasp when they got colonized.

Colonized by who?

A lot of Americans like Musk et al get upset that we have some muslim immigrants. You get a lot of this weird we're colonised stuff when it's actually about 7% of the population and we used to do a lot of real colonisation the other way around with British India and the like.

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

#513
post #2

The point is not just that he's blinded by the flag: He's boldly marching into the void, confident. "wrapped in the flag" is a great saying.

Given that the flag bearer apparently walked on to the pillar, why wouldn't we suspect they can repeat the performance?

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

#514
post #502

Banksy is peak redditor. Masquerading as a free-thinking activist who happens to agree with every talking point of the established media and global bureaucratic regime.

Every anti-establishment person is the same nowadays. Turns out they didn’t hate the power, they hated not having it. I think it’s human nature.

> is the same nowadays

When did that change?

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

#515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

Your first comment was subjective in general, and suspiciously pro-right anti-left - in my opinion.

You could have left it at that.

Instead you decided on an emotional outburst due to being downvoted by "idiots" - giving us all an absolute textbook example of "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".

Thanks!

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

#516

So anyone can now place whatever they want in public space in UK or some people like Banksy are more equal than the other people? I find this statue offensive for double standards. This should go quickly away unless they confirm he had official permit and he is just "anti-establishment" hipster.

I put my bin bags out on the pavement in Westminster too but the bastards seem to judge them as less artistic and take them away.

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

#517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, right now this comment declaring "the oooh aahh Rorschach part is obvious" is literally just below another comment declaring that the sculpture could only reasonably be interpreted as being anti-nationalist. So thanks for proving my point.

That just means you're both wrong. "Its location - Waterloo Place, St James's - is an area designed to celebrate imperialism and military dominance in the 1800s", says the BBC. Banksy is from Bristol, where they threw a statue of a slave-trading philanthropist in the river. The statue is wearing a suit. It's not very interpretable. We can wonder whether it's about the Conservative party or the Reform party, but nobod…

Every single comment that proudly declares "my interpretation is obviously the correct one and you other guys are wrong" only further serves to prove what an actual great piece of art this is. That is, it's art that makes you think and can be validly interpreted in many different ways, and more serves as a projection of the own viewer.

Who necessarily cares what the original design of Waterloo Place is for, it's also just a place in the center of London with lots of foot traffic, visibility and a ton of statues. Or that the place Banksy is from threw a statue into the river (that connection in particular is quite the stretch - are you saying all the things that happened in your home town are inherently reflections of you?).

The more I see people declare that their interpretation is "right" (just see the argument thread over whether right wing or left wing people are more likely to wrap themselves up in a flag), the more I think this is a pretty brilliant piece of art.

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

#518

I have a hardhat, high viz vest, lanyard, and $600 toolbelt because I'm an industrial electrician, but they get me into a lot . My face becomes invisible; I become "The Electrician".

A while ago I read about Todd Lappin making his personal car look like a work truck as an urban camouflage project.

> This urban camouflage guise is very useful for parking in yellow zones, urban/industrial exploration, and crime deterrence. And the thing is… it really works!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/1665853

https://kk.org/cooltools/urban-camouflag/

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

#520

It took me a minute to figure out why I think it's lame. I suspect that Banksy and his fans are sure that it's "the other" Britons that are blinded, it's not a self-reflection prompt for them. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe a more powerful piece of art would have that self reflection effect across the board. As is it feels about as nuanced as "fuck trump" and similar. If you already agree you already agree, if not then you…

>about as nuanced as "fuck trump"

the fact that it has many different interpretations in this thread suggest it's more nuanced than that. Though it's not some super subtle thing you have to be an art expert to understand, I'll give you.

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