UK, what the bloody hell is wrong with you.
Our current government is the labour party, the one of the big two that is supposed to be more left leaning. They haven’t been left leaning in twenty years, they crept to centrist and now the creep to the right continues. They’re not dissimilar from the democrats in America. Internationally, there seems to be a general move towards the right and we are certainly following it. Demonstrations and activism don’t seem to help. Shit is fucked, basically.
The UK government as effectively ignored all protests since the poll tax riots. The choice seems either start acting like the French or just sit down and shut up.
Yeah, and I’ve been on some actions that have kicked off, back in the day, fighting the lines of riot police. It was fun but achieved fuck all. Yeah we need many more people involved in aggressive protests. I don’t know if that will help either, but at least we need to mobilise a broader section of the population.
Do they realize how famous and beloved that person will be if they are identified?
I just want him up be the most unexpected person.
like Lord buckethead, or the most gammon looking brit on the island
Or trans and from an immigrant family. Banksy is a national treasure as this point and it would be a nice win for British culture and minorities if they turn out not to be just another white guy.
Could everyone in London just suddenly adopt a fashion trend of wearing V for Vendetta masks?
… Or is that already illegal?
The UK, in collaboration with the US, has been a surveillance state for over 15 years. Now is becoming an authoritarian one too.
I am banksy.
Same tho
spits out chewing tobacco
leans forward in chair, causing spurs to ring
adjusts cattleman hat
squints
Well.
Ain’t that just the darndest coincidence.
Me too.
I’m pretty sure they already unmasked Banksy
That’s not him
We are all Banksy on this glorious day
Will the real Banksy please stand up
This is Banksy. That kid is much too young cmon
Fuck me that guy looks just like me.
I never met him myself, but I know a few people who have done way back. Site crew in Bristol mostly. Rip useless Paul who had one of his rats on the side of his trailer.
Well I’m a fan. His social commentary is on point and much needed. I hope his erased mural gets repainted somewhere else nearby
I reckon any street artist understands that their work is temporary. It probably got more publicity by being removed. Streisand effect at work again.
Jontron with a wig?
JonWHO? That’s Banksy! (Aka definitely not Bruce from FunHaus)
So they destroyed a priceless artwork, and are essentially planning to kill graffiti Santa next.
I wonder who’s ordering this, and if they’re aware it will not help the public opinion problem they’re having.
Well Labour is just a different flavour of the Conservative Party. So it does track.
Ah, it’s like that over there, too. Welcome to the party.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Yup. It’s a one way trip to fascist dystopia until the oligarchs feel they might genuinely face the old French treatment.
Some prophecies are self fulfilling. Stalin’s paranoia didn’t kill him maybe, but it didn’t exactly save him.
Something about the parallel of Capitalism and Fascism eating themselves
Careful what you wish for. I’m not disagreeing, but when the powerful are fearful, it will get worse before it gets better. Could be a whole lot worse.
Things are already getting worse at a rapid clip.
Ah yes, going after world renowned artist for graffiti because he made them feel bad. Truth speaking to power will always be unpopular with those in power.
I mean tbh they go after all the world renowned graffiti artists, as by nature graffiti is illegal. There are plenty muralists that aren’t sought after by the authorities because they only paint legal (…under that name anyway…) but by definition graffiti is a crime.
He’s not because people not into graff know him so if he writes on your building it’s worth money, yaaay. Even though those who know graff know him as a biter, for his copying of Blek Le Rat.
I mean tbh they go after all the world renowned graffiti artists
If it were some random dude writing some random letters, they probably would put in a lot of effort though; because the effort isn’t because of material damage.
Yeah, JA XTC, MQ, Kez 5 (dead), Semz, Zexor (dead), Risk, Cost & Revs, Kuma, Wanto, Pixote, Earsnot, Seen, etc on and on, all those dudes are still or were* (*either caught and now paint that name legally or died) being actively hunted by the cops specifically because of the material damage. I wouldn’t know from experience or anything I’ve never written on anything and you have no proof to the contrary.
Banksy isn’t sought for criminal charges, he’s sought because he’s “famous.” I’m sure he would face charges because he is at least doing his street art illegally, but it’s absolutely not the same treatment someone like Jase or Ich would get bombing reefers, much less someone like MQ.
In conclusion, Team Robbo FTW fuck that biter.
Thanks. Seeing this collection of names in a post on lemmy dropped my jaw. All city.
Sounds to me like London just declared all their walls as open season
So telling that they tolerated his “criminal damage” for literally decades, until it made them actually look bad.
No… they just have become more repressive and no longer tolerate being called out. This is a scary reaction for democracy for just a painting on a wall.
“We must catch this villain who is making public edifices worth millions to our oligarchs!!”
They can (attempt to) unmask Bansky all they want but his message will never die. Best wishes Banksy!
It means Banksy, who has remained anonymous for more than 25 years, could finally be unmasked as he would be required to publicly disclose his name if brought to court.
Gonna be hard to bring them to court if you don’t even know their name, isn’t it?
Banksy is a company at this point. They can find them if they want to. It’s not like they’ve never exchanged money for thier work before.
He has sold some of his work at auction, I’m guessing they didn’t write a check to “Banksy”.
probably wrote the cheque to a shell company
There’s two companies associated with the name, at least. This is from memory, so grain of salt, but i believe there’s a company specifically to get a hold of the artist(s). And one that sells the prints and stuff.
I’ve long heard that his identity is an open secret and a lot of people know his actual identity. Solid chance the UK government already knows who he is.
Them silently knowing his identity is not the same as them proving his identity in court though.
With the London surveillance apparatus, I bet they could figure out who Banksy is. It’d be an insane waste of time and resources, but I bet they could.
Does he still install them himself? Isn’t it likely he sent someone to do it for him?
They have done both.
Couldn’t tell ya, but that’s certainly plausible.
Could always make them waste even more resources by adding noise to what little data they might have.
I’mSpartacusBanksy!The fact that they’re going to all this trouble over this image proves the point the image was making better than anything else possibly could have.
Exactly and the image is already out on the internet now.
Link?
Before and after they tried to remove it only to further bolster the message
It’s almost like it was Banksy’s plan all along because the removed artwork looks just as powerful as the full artwork.
Honestly, they inadvertently made it better, and certainly made it more poignant
Streisand Effect to the max.
Banksy is as much a person as Nicolas Bourbaki was. Although unlike Bourbaki, there is allegedly one guy who is kind of the main guy, but if that one guy goes to prison, I’m fairly certain Bansky artworks will continue to appear.
In fact I’d put money on the fact that one would appear in a prominent place soon after.
And if the establishment somehow manage to round up every single person associated with Banksy and manage to get something to stick to every single one of them, which I strongly doubt is possible, the rise in wannabe Banksy groups doing the same thing won’t be far off.
The artwork is almost always made with stencils and spray paints. Stencils can be prepared well in advance. A trained group could have one of these up in under a couple of minutes.
If I was Banksy - or one of them - I would almost certainly have distributed my art to trusted individuals for the event of my incarceration and beyond.
In fact I’d put money on the fact that one would appear in a prominent place soon after.
I mean, if it’s multiple people and the ones not incarcerated don’t immediately drop more art, I’d be disappointed.
Fuck are you kidding me?
The plebs are getting rowdy. Surely this will send the message we’re hoping for and they’ll settle down.
