Banksy and the Global

As Kwame Anthony Appiah neatly describes in his book Cosmopolitanism, the way human beings interact and are exposed to each other has changed considerably . We used to spend most our lives within a single tribe, in which all of the faces we would meet during the day were those we had met all other days of our lives. Nowadays however, the massive increase of global population and the rise of large populated cities, populations which until relatively recent were unimaginable, force us to be confronted with a large number of faces, of which only a small part of a percentage makes up those we know. As Appiah argues; ‘once we started to build these larger societies, most people knew little about the ways of other tribes, and could affect just a few local lives.’ (10) However, as Ulrich Beck argues, the advent of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitanization gave rise to a host of new problems and questions. Indeed one of these is the notion that ‘ideas of global concerns are becoming part of the everyday local experiences and the “moral life-worlds” of the people’(17) Beck further asks that with the rise of

‘can the reasons which a society gives for the exclusion of strangers be questioned by members of this society and strangers alike? […] For example, may ‘foreigners’ participate in the process of discussion, definition and decision-making when it comes to the issue of civil rights?’(20)

In this essay I will argue that graffiti stencil art is a way of addressing and overcoming these and other issues put forth by globalization theorists. I will do this by focusing primarily on the Palestine wall pieces done by British graffiti artists Banksy.

Although a form a graffiti has been around since cavemen first discovered walls and pigment make a good combination and started doodling their hunting scenes in caves in the south of France, modern graffiti as we know it today as a unified visual culture, finds its origins in the streets of 1970s New York City.   As Joe Austin explains, in the post-war and post-fordism policies of urban renewal parts of the population in New York were excluded as ‘significant portions of the poor and non-white populations were pushed economically, physically, and socially towards the margins.’(3) It is in this urban setting that graffiti came into play. For these excluded youths writing their names on the walls of the city provided the means of being recognized locally within their community. As this took off and graffiti spread beyond the community’s boundaries it became a way of becoming visible in to public’s eye. In this way, graffiti became a way for those on the margins of society, the unheard voices of the unprivileged, to become seen. One problem, however, inherent in the original graffiti writing, was that the codes and language of the art form and subculture were alien to most citizens and passersby. So, although the fact that graffiti art occupied a public urban space that is always under scrutiny by the mass media, passersby, and cameras, the message that these writings bore remained primarily unread by these same eyes.

As the popularity of graffiti rose, however, it moved away from mere ‘tagging’ or ‘throw-ups’ to more elaborate ‘pieces’ in which lettering made room for symbols and drawings. A recent result of this evolution in the graffiti art is that of stencil graffiti. Stencil art, which requires nothing more than a cardboard cut-out and spray paint, is often characterized by its ‘iconographic nature that provokes surprise and play in the urban environment, as a commentary on the encroaching corporatization and routinization of city life’ (Iveson 146) as well as being ‘inherently political because its transformative power is seen to be embodied in its aesthetic form.’(Indji 228) One of, if not these, most famous names in stencil art is that of the infamous British recluse Banksy.

According to Todd McGowan one problem with cosmopolitanism and globalization is the fragility of the social bond or the symbolic order. According to McGowan ‘nothing guarantees signification […] the social bond depends on the free act of the subject entering into it.’(409) In this article McGowan argues that an inability to connect with others in the symbolic order can send a person, or a nation, into increasingly desperate attempts to reach out and be recognized. The importance of being recognized in a globalized world is also something that concerns Judith Butler, and then specifically in connection with our sense of mourning and the need for connection.

In her book Precarious Life Butler asks herself the question ‘To what extend have Arab peoples, predominantly practitioners of Islam, fallen outside the “human” as it has been naturalized in its “Western” mold by the contemporary workings of humanism?’(32) As an answer to this Butler suggest the concept of ‘unreal lives’. Butler furthers this argument by stating that ‘if violence is done against those who are unreal, then, from the perspective of violence, it fails to injure or negate those lives since those lives are already negated. […] They cannot be mourned because they are always already lost or, rather, never “were”.’(33) The question raised by this, then, is how these unreal lives can be made mournable, real and human. According to Butler this can be achieved by a life becoming noteworthy, it needs to qualify for recognition. One way of this is to bring the names, or the people’s struggle, into public view, to humanize them through recognition. One of the main problems in creating recognition is the same problem that is raised above by McGowan.

Language is a highly symbolic structure that depends on the faith placed on the fact that the addresser and addressee are part of the same symbolic order. In the case of Arabs, and for the focus of this essay primarily Palestinians, there is a significant break between the symbolic order that they belong to and that of western people. The language itself, forms a barrier between the different cultures and the Palestinian issue is often unheard and the Palestinians themselves are often unseen, a fact beautifully addressed by Butler’s anecdote of a Palestinian families struggle to get an obituary published in an American newspaper.

One of the most problematic issue in the Palestinian struggle is that of the Israeli West Bank Wall that the Israeli government started erecting in 2002.  The wall itself, which consists of a network of barriers, trenches, and eight meter high concrete blocks, is caught up in so much controversy that the naming of it already highlights the problematics of language, and thus the fragility symbolic order or the social bond. The wall has variously been called the Separation, anti-terrorist, or Security Fence by the Israeli, the Racist Segregation Wall by the Palestinians, the Retention or the Apartheid Wall by other opponents, just simply Wall by the International Court of Justice that deemed it illegal and inhumane, or barrier, separation barrier, or West Bank Barrier by the BBC’s style guide for journalists.

If the very act of just naming the wall appears to be an act of contingency, in which the fragility of McGowan’s social bond is revealed. The problems with naming the wall highlights a problem with the Palestinian issue on the international stage. How can we talk or address the Palestinian issue if we cannot come to a mutual lexicon. How can we, as Butler would want us, find a means of relating or recognizing the others if the ambiguity of language itself works as a barrier. It is here that graffiti art, and in particular stencil art can supply us with a means of overcoming this barrier and help us recognize the Palestinians, to make them human and their lives real.

As mentioned above, the origins of modern graffiti art is rooted in the desire for the unheard and unseen disenfranchised youths of a large city to be seen. Indeed as Lewisohn states; “Graffiti [is] generally the voice of people who aren’t listened to. Graffiti is one of those few tools you have if you have almost nothing”(117-119) They used public urban spaces to gain a reputation with their community. As the art form took off they moved beyond the boundaries of their direct community into further reaches of the city and were turned into recognized figures. Their names were seen by the public, the immediate passersby and they gained a reputation. An important factor in this, however, is the fact that the actual writer of these pieces remained unseen. Although their names, or pieces were seen throughout the city, the illegality of the art form required the actual writer to remain unseen. All that remained was the message left by the writer, the actual artist remained unseen.

Perhaps the most famous unseen street artist is British stencil artist Banksy. A large factor in the international popularity of Banksy is the ease of his work. His artistic expressions are easily identifiable and almost immediately decodable. His statements have a clear meaning and these are easily recognizable.  Furthermore, as Guido Indji argues; ‘[Banksy’s] stencil graffiti is inherently political: it is designed and implemented to forge a relationship between the artist and the citizen over the concern of space and how it is used.’(228) An idea that is extended by Chandra Morrison who suggests that  it is ‘a means to pay homage, to promote, to simulate reflection, to make commentary, to critique international affairs, or to reference completely local situations.’(233) One of the most famous series of stencil pieces were those done by Banksy on the Segregation Wall . In 2005 Bansky, in the midst of some unrest in the area, created nine large stencil murals on the West Bank Barrier Wall. A large piece of a small child climbing through a hole in the wall surrounded by clear blue skies was discovered next to the Ramallah checkpoint.

   
Figure 1, Banksy “Art Attack”, 2005

This mural was quickly picked up by CNN, the BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian and a host of other renowned international media outlets. Banksy’s murals were communicated across numerous language barriers and were able to communicate that which dozens of international news reporters were unable to. The piece became a new symbol of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The murals needed no commentary or context other than the wall they were placed on. The images were clear, simple, direct and highly unambiguous. The very fact that the writer remains unseen also eliminates any intrusion of the viewer’s biographical knowledge of the writer into the message. All that is there is the message of the mural and the context in which it is placed.

Banksy’s murals, however, were not the first murals or graffiti pieces to be put on the West Bank Barrier but they were the first to gain international attention and were able to force the international media to pay attention to the plight of the Palestinians. The graffiti done by the locals never gained any international attention. One reason behind this lack of attention, pre-Banksy, is the lack of recognition that is mentioned above. Furthermore, the local artist’s used graffiti to address local issues, to unite their community, to remember the dead. The local work is exactly that, local. They are done by locals, for locals, to address local concerns.

Figure 2,West Bank Wall, Artist Unknown                Figure 3, West Bank Wall, Artist Unknown

Banksy’s Murals, however, were able to gain international attention. They were able to move beyond the local to the global. Banky’s style, inherent to stencil art, operates within the realm of western culture, but by using the stencil form it is dominated by western symbols that are, through western capitalism and the global economy and franchising, universally recognizable. Banksy does not ignore the local but moves beyond it by applying an outsider’s perspective on the local situation. Additionally, as Robert Howze argues; graffiti is an ‘informal document of citizenship.’(8) It links the artists to the community, combining the local, in this case, with the international, the east with the west. Furthermore, as Burnette and Willis argue, by remaining unseen Banksy is able to draw ‘attention to the apparatus that constitutes the medium’(4) Rather than focusing on the artist, the viewer is forced to contemplate the piece itself and, perhaps even more importantly in this case, on the canvas it is created on. Part of the message instilled in stencil graffiti is based on the context in which it is placed. The actual location of the piece is as important to the message as the graphics themselves.  By keeping the wall visible in his mural (figure 1) Banksy shows no illusion of beautifying or hiding the wall, a concern raised by one of the locals who claimed that ‘We don’t want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall.’(Kalman 18) Instead, by portraying the children outside of the picturesque scene of bright blue sky and integrating the wall into his art Banksy is able to remind the viewer of the real conditions behind the wall and the suffering of the Palestinians.

They further highlight some of the problematic issues that Appadurai addresses in his article on globalization. According to Appadurai ‘the central problem of today’s global interaction is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization.’(5) and that there are ‘fundamental disjuncture between economy, culture and politics.’(6) Banksy appears to highlight this idea of disjunction and shifting spheres. The artist is British, the designs were created in England, the stencils themselves in Israel, the murals were created in Palestine, the paint he uses are most likely of Chinese make and the symbols he uses are globalized images from western society.  Banksy thus, again, appears to combine the local with the global.

By combining all of the above elements, the universality of stencil art, incorporating the local with the global, integrating the context within the piece and by foregrounding numerous spheres mentioned by Appadurai Banksy is able to transcend the language barrier, move beyond the fragility of the social bond and is able to move a local issue out of its communal bounds and onto an international discourse. By the very universality of its medium Banksy is able to remove much of the otherness of the Palestinians and their situation for western commentators and spectators and instead is able to create of form of recognition, to humanize their suffering.

By integrating his murals with the graffiti of the locals Banksy is able to create a discourse between these pieces and through the wide variety of styles on the wall, which through Banksy have now attained at least some international recognition, is able to display the influence of global politics and capitalism on the local situation. Banksy’s nine murals act like a scream from the midst of a dark urban space, they call out in a common, universal and popular vision of politics which reaches well beyond the direct local community. It has taken a local, yet still highly international, issue out of the sphere of the ignored and have become recognized by the western media. They have helped turn the Palestinian suffering into a mournful disgrace.

(word count 2540)

 

Works Cited:

• Austin, Joe. Taking the Train: how graffiti art became an urban crisis in New York City. New York : Columbia University Press, 2001
• Appadurai, Arjun. Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. Public Culture 2:2 (1990) 1-24
• Banksy. Banksy: Wall and Piece. London: Random House, 2006.
• Beck, Ulrich. The Cosmopolitan Society and its Enemies. Theory, Culture & Society 19.1-2 (2002) 17-44
• Butler, Judith. Precarious Life: the powers of mourning and violence. London: Verso, 2004
• Howze, Russel. Stencil Nation: graffiti, community, and art. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2008.
• Indji, Guido. 1000 Stencil: Argentina Graffiti. Buenos Aires: La Marcas Editora, 2007.
• Iveson, Kurt. Publics and The City. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
• Kalman, Mathew. Israeli Barrier Draws Artists to a Cause: Many Palestinians Object to Paintings as Disguising Reality. The Boston Globe. 27 April 2006.
• Lewisohn, Cadar. Street Art: the graffiti revolution. New York: Abrams, 2008.
• McGowan, Todd. “The contingency of connection: the path to politicization in Babel.” Discourse 30.3 (2008): 401-418
• Morrison, Chandra. Re: Stencil a Qoutidian Absurdity. In Indji, Guido. 1000 Stencil: Argentina Graffiti. Buenos Aires: La Marcas Editora, 2007.
• Truman, Emily J. The (In)visible Artist: stencil graffiti, activist art, and the value of visual public space. Shift Queen’s Journal of Visual & Material Culture 3 (2010) electronic.
• Walsh, Michael. Graffito. Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 1996