Page 2 - Banksy Pamphlet

BANKSY
Banksy is a street artist who keeps his identity hidden creating political statements through his artwork. The particular focus of this work is considering the visual journey of ‘Girl with Balloon’, arguably one of the most famous street artworks of all time. His art career began by looking at the work of Blek Le Rat, recycling his ideas whilst communicating his own voice; beginning with DryBreadZ in Bristol then moving to work with Inkie. At 18, Banksy was nearly caught vandalising by the police and noted the use of stencils and quickly decided to use stencils within his own work which is the style still used now due to the ease in speed.
‘Girl with Balloon’ has been created in various forms and is one of the most notable pieces of Banky’s artworks, it was first created in London in 2002 under Waterloo bridge at London’s Southbank and another one appeared at the same time in Shoreditch, East London. Both stencils are now lost. Variations have also been created to combat political issues. This was shown in 2014 where a girl in a headscarf was featured to campaign with the #withSyria movement. The work has been created in printa as well as purple, blue, pink and gold variations were also created. All sold for large amounts, with the purple one selling for £791,250. One remarkable piece was the shredding of ‘Girl with Balloon’ which made headlines creating ‘Love is in the Bin’, where the work self-shredded itself, with a shredder hidden inside the frame at an auction at Sotheby’s London in 2018.