Banksy Square? It's got a ring to it, hasn't it? And it would surely be the first time that our city fathers have honoured someone without actually knowing who he is.
The story so far. Maintenance work on an electricity sub-station on Tib Street unearthed an artwork by the lauded graffiti artist Banksy – a poodle morphing into a lion's head – which had been covered by meshing and greenery for eight years. At least it seems to be a Banksy. The mysterious artist – whose true identity is still not known – seems unlikely to confirm it as one of his own.
What would a few short years ago have been considered criminal damage is now treasured art, fenced off and covered in protective perspex. The council is so delighted with the find that city centre chief Pat Karney says the area may be renamed Banksy Square.
Now I love Banksy's work, and the thousands who queued to see his exhibition in Bristol last year suggest he is one of our most popular contemporary artists.
But I would not want to be in the shoes of establishment figures forced to reach value judgments on street art. That Banksy mural is high art now, but if he'd been caught in the act of putting it there circa 2002, the chances are he would have had his collar felt. And the spray can merchant who puts his tag on the next wall in 2010 is presumably still a vandal.
If authorities must constantly take a view on impromptu public art, why not go one step further and vet the buskers allowed the ply their trade up Market Street: a special licence for that nimble-fingered gypsy accordion player and an ASBO for all those inept strummers who are little more than plectrum-wielding beggars.
Back to graffiti, the undoubtedly talented Thomas “TJ” Dolan and his friend Thomas Whittaker were given sentences of 15 months and 12 months respectively at Manchester Crown Court in 2007 after admitting graffiti on trains, stations and railway property from Buxton to Bury. The sentences were overturned by the Court of Appeal after two months amid campaigning by the young men's families and a Facebook-fuelled furore. But there were still a lot of unforgiving Mancs who thought the pair had got what they deserved.
TJ was last seen supplying old school graffiti for use in a Jedward video. You don't get much more mainstream than that.
Manchester knows full well what tends to happen when the cultural cutting edge comes up against government and the justice system. The Electric Circus - one of Manchester's significant punk venues in the late 1970s, which saw the Sex Pistols and Warsaw, later Joy Division across its stage - closed down after pressure from the council and the fire service.
The Hacienda is now regarded as a font of creativity. But in its heyday it was thought a nuisance by Greater Manchester Police. Even before the Hacienda voluntarily closed because of problems with gangs, GMP had tried to get the club's licence revoked because of drug-taking.
The first impromptu raves in old warehouses, even hilltops in Rochdale, at the end of 1980s may seem like a blossoming sub-culture in hindsight. To Margaret Thatcher, it was a menace worthy of legislation, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 po-facedly defining rave music as something which “includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”. What better than this to illustrate the chasm of misunderstanding between nascent art and fossilised bureaucracy.
The same city council so proud of Banksy's mural takes a very different view of another activity closely related to street art – skateboarding. Look at the very arty glossy magazines devoted to street skating, and you realise that all that clattering down steps and jumping onto benches is, like it or not, a sincere form of creative self-expression. But the city council's response has been a bylaw prohibiting skating as “a menace”.
But perhaps the skaters court disapproval in the way that Banksy once defied authority. Universal approval is not necessarily what the artist wants.
An excellent piece about Picasso by Alexei Sayle in the Sunday Times remarked that Guernica – Picasso's great anti-war painting, which shamed the fascists in the Spanish Civil War – can now be bought on a coffee mug.
If we stick it behind perspex and name a square after it, are we emasculating Banksy's guerilla art in the same way? A temptingly controversial solution would be to do what we did to all the other Banksys in Manchester...knock it down.
Wednesday whinge
A heated debate has followed a Lancashire magistrate's straight-talking assessment that two teenage vandals before him were “absolute scum”.
Chairman of the bench Austin Malloy was dealing with a pair of 16-year-olds who scribbled racist and sexually abusive messages in prayer books and bent a valuable cross at Blackburn Cathedral. But when he told them: “Normal people would consider you absolute scum”, the court clerk Christine Dean objected, saying this was inappropriate language. Now the mother of one of the ne'er-do-wells has weighed in with a complaint, prompting an inquiry.
Mr Malloy is not entirely correct when he calls these boys “absolute scum”. Since they were caught after signing their names in the cathedral visitors' book, he should have pointed out that they are stupid as well.
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At least he wasnt labelling all young people scum,based on where they live.
[quote name=Angie33 , Manchester]At least he wasnt labelling all young people scum,based on where they live.[/quote]
I think that Clerk of the Court, Ms Dean needs her bumps feeling. This is yet another disgraceful case of political correctness gone mad. What those heathens did was absolutely appalling and certainly the behaviour of scum. It was nothing to do with labelling ALL young people nor based on where they live.
Why are MCC putting this vandal on a pedestal ? Surely just because the guy is famous for painting on public walls isnt a excuse to make him a model for kids to follow.Where do you draw the line between vandalism or art...So in the future the kids who put their tags all over the city should no be prosecuted in law.Because MCC has set a standard of scribbling on walls is acceptable. Sack all the councillors who agree that its acceptable to allow people (even banksy)to mess buildings and communities up with his scribblings on walls.Banksie should be tracked down and taken to court for vandalism just like other kids have been .Pat karney should be the first to be reprimanded for gloryfiying (Graffit) .
I dont want to live in areas that look like a war zones or gang owned areas..Karney should resign .We are trying to make manchester a great place to live in not a haven for scum who tag everything (trams,trains,Bridges etc) by making this behaviour acceptable we are inviting trouble by allowing people to come to manchester and tag everything in site.....Banksy square?"
Splat!Utopia Ill comment from any angle I like.I dont need to state the obvious.
"Thomas Whittaker, 18, was sentenced to 12 months behind bars and Thomas `TJ' Dolan, 20, was jailed for 15 months on Tuesday when they appeared at Manchester Crown Court for causing around £13,000 worth of damage by spray-painting railway property across the North West" This what banksy should be facing?
What would happen to somebody if they decided to spray paint over this graffitti?
Better still, if somebody decided to be public sprited and cleaned this graffitti off would they be congratulated by this councillor and his fellow public servats?
Graffiti can be a fantastic art form, but it's rarely ever more more than eyesore vandalism. There's nothing creative or interesting about teenage scrawlings and tags, where the art is little more than a signature, sprayed again and again all over a town or city just to get their name noticed.
Banksy has always approached his work with wit, intelligence and a real attempt to give people great street art. That's the difference.
I'm not wetting myself over this latest find. Not his best work, but it's definitely something which should be preserved. Knocking it down would be cultural vandalism if it was found to be the real thing.
It's right and proper that graffiti shouldn't be encouraged or tolerated on public buildings and spaces without permission. You can't be seen to have an open policy on street graffiti, especially when 99% of it is dire, but in rare cases like this, when time and history has taken the artist to a whole other level, then you have to be prepared to preserve their work.
If you're a graffiti artist, do us a favour and keep it to your bedroom walls or other private spaces until you've got rid of your teenage angst and learnt your craft.
If you must give us uninvited street art, make sure it transcends ugly and meaningless vandalism. If you want a name for yourself, earn it.
Well. There are talented guys out there. What about a license or applying to the council for permission to put a design on an otherwise dull/derilict wall? Makes sense.
I'll continue to drink in the NQ though, not 'Banksy Square'. What a cringe worthy ''It's cool to follow the crowd'' move from Pat Karney.
Zingo, what are you doing to make manchester a great place to live? Nothing!!
Banksy is a true artist and anyone who has seen his work on the hidious wall which separates Israel and parts of Palestine will back this (if they have a soul).
I dont agree with naming it Banksy Square though. It takes away from what his and other guerilla artists are about.
Vive la revolution!!
So many negative comments on street art, people fail to recognise the little scallies scribbling on the bus are expressing themselves, this is art, I can understand the disgust because of the damage to property but yet again the attitude of its 'all wrong' and they 'should be punished' isn't going to solve anything. The city forces adverts, slogans, billboards, newspapers, at every corner, no wonder people express individuality publicly, city's like Berlin and Barcelona have great street art, they enhance the city. Anyway my point is that councils should embrace creativity and give it a place in the city, lawfully, a plaza of graffiti, skateboarding and freedom from the man.
Has anyone been to Milan? It's a hellhole. Every single street is cover in it. Back Piccadilly is horrible as well. Any street art is negative, and has that impact on its location. Simple.
The disfigurement of another persons (or peoples) property without prior consent is vandalism no matter how proud the vandal is of his/her effort.
Go easy on him! He entertains me daily with his loony posts about "protecting our innocents", "draconian measures", "birchings", "the law failing our innocents", and constant incorrect use of the question mark.
I'm glad he's around, he's the perfect replacement for Ace who seems to have wandered off.
Whichever builidng it's on is probably worth double now!
[quote name=Mike, Manchester]
I'm glad he's around, he's the perfect replacement for Ace who seems to have wandered off.[/quote]
Is this zingo your talking about? Its the same person. I thought so for a while but when he started talkign about b of the bang I knew it was him.
Yep! :D