A straightforward enough affront to Robbo as Banksy's incorporated Robbo's piece without asking permission. Big deal? You may say. And to an extent I agree, as a piece it was great, but it was also a calculated diss. Banksy knew what he was doing. And the documentary follows Robbo as he changes Banksy pieces and then Banksy changes them once more. To the outsider it's pretty puerile. Eine is interviewed discussing the difference between graf and stencils. Blek has a little whinge about Banksy stealing his ideas, which for the most part is sour grapes (yes they've both used stencils, rats etc etc, but Blek wholly failed to develop the idea). Robbo goes on to have a show at Pure Evils, a smack of hypocrisy, but who am I to criticise him trying to cash in, actually I did fucking criticise it. And then the show disarmingly ends with the news Robbo has fallen from a ladder and is now in an induced coma.
What next?
There were two inaccuracies as far as I could tell. They stated two people at Pure Evil's show were connected to Banksy and one was his publicist. That person was not. It has since be said that they were plants by the show? True or not? I don't know. They also stated Pure Evil's gallery put Banksy 'on the map' which is plainly fucking insane. These were the only inaccuracies I could see.
What did this show tell us? (comments please, as I learnt very little).
Banksy had an issue with Robbo (possibly dating back to Robbo giving him a slap when they met in the 90's)
The show was plainly from the Robbo camp, Banksy was asked to comment but did his usual 'sage' lines of little note, that didn't help at all.
Banksy's not the first person to use stencils
Robbo sold some work as a result of this argument
That Robbo's fans have blind hatred for Banksy, monotonous to say the least(comments after the tv show)
That Banksy's fans for the main will blindly follow him like snvelling wretches who are ever so slightly pathetic (comments after the tv show).
Robbo is now in a coma and the argument should be laid to rest.
Didn't it say something along the lines that Pure Evil gallery had put Banksy on the map? Pretty major inaccuracy I would say Mr Flunky!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they said Robbo was found unconcious in the street, which made it sound like someone had given him a kicking (thus leaving us wondering if it was the Banksy crew or friends of or more likely someone paid by them to do it)
ReplyDeletebut whatever. lets hope, for his family and friends sake, rather than the art worlds or future street art soap operas, that he recovers.
I have to add though that the grand finale of the film made me laugh. Here's Robbo attacking the stencil artist, then he paints a big portrait in tones of grey that looks like it could have been made by any number of stencil artists!
Anyway... Funky, you said "what did this show tell us?"
Well, the main thing it told us, if you read between the lines and listen to the tone of voice, is that Banksy is a snivelling little toe-rag, a coward and a diss-er. The voice over was so against him I was amazed! It wasn't what anyone would call a balanced view of the situation! I didn't know they made tv shows this way. It was the best way Robbo could have his revenge.
Banksy IS a snivelling little toe-rag though, so that got that bit right. Banksy was given plenty of chances to put his side of the story but chose not to. Maybe that's why it was one sided.
ReplyDeleteThe Banksy fanboys have jumped on the fact that it wasn't the PR agent Jo Brooks shown in the programme as a way of trying to discredit the documentary. However I've heard that the person shown WAS someone who works for the Banksy organisation. So, yeah...it wasn't his main PR agent, but it wasn't that far off the mark after all.
Was reading this interesting article on Elate's blog. He was interviewed in the documentary. http://www.jonhammer.com/blog/2011/08/14/graffiti-wars-documentary/
What really stood out with regard to Pure Evil, was this part... "Why did Pure Evil persuade Robbo to do his show in his gallery when he is Banksy’s loyal mate and was appalled at Robbo’s destruction to Banksy’s works???
He was so furious at Robbo’s retaliation against Banksy pieces in fact, that he was actually getting people to phone me up in early 2010 trying to find out Robbo’s real identity."
he probably THINKS he's Banksys loyal mate, but no one really likes ol' Charlie, so the idea of him being anyones friend is laughable
ReplyDeletepeople only ever tolerated having him around as he has money, drugs, a gallery, and sometimes some girls (who were after the money and drugs, not his sweaty little weiner)
Yeah, the thing mentioned in the programme about Pure Evil being a gallery that has helped Banksy was possibly because he's got a thing hanging on the wall signed by Banksy thanking him for all his help (at the cans festival) which I bet he couldn't wait to show the programme makers, and he was no doubt telling them about how him and Banksy are best buddies etc, so that's probably where they got that idea from.
ReplyDeleteBit harsh on Pure Evil but ultimately his rent needs to be paid and the robbo show would have been a a nice little earner for him after all the show was "rammed".
ReplyDeletebasically, the show told us that banksy is a little dweeb hiding behind his glasses.
suppose CARTRAIN loved the publicity too
Robbos people says Banksy wont help out with a work to fund Robbos future, then Banksy sends a picture and gets turned down by Robbos people! priceless!
ReplyDeleteLike this post alot and have to agree with it. No hysterics or bile - just clear. Nice.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get that info from RobmeRobYou?
ReplyDeleteI seriously doubt that either of those things happened. Sounds like more Banksy PR bullshit to me.
Funky, it's not so much that Robbo's fans have a 'blind hatred' for Banksy...it's rather that a lot of people have very valid reasons for hating Banksy.
ReplyDeleteI won't go too deep into it as most of it has been said before, but basically Banksy came to London and traded off of the underground protest scene to create an inane, insincere parody art that appealed to moronic Shoreditch hipster twats and Sun readers. It's the equivalent of a Chinese bootlegger churning out comedy mugs and t-shirts for tourists, but then somehow being lauded as an art genius through a combination of public ignorance and marketing PR bullshit. It just goes to show that often it's not about originality or talent, but how loud you're prepared to shout and how far you're willing to dumb down for money.
That's not to mention that he's consistently stolen most of his ideas from other artists, and used the illegal and rebellious nature of being loosely associated with graffiti as an empty pose to further his career. As if all of this wasn't enough, he's also well known to be a nasty little arrogant prick of a man.
A lot of people make the lazy assumption of thinking that people dislike him because of a mindless jealousy, but the reality is that subcultures give genuine respect to the people amongst them who are authentic and are in things for the right reasons, whereas they tend to viciously turn on people who rape those cultures and other people's hard work for profit. The mainstream public can't understand the reasons behind this and mistakenly see it as 'blind hatred' because they only really have a superficial overview (if any) of the history and circumstances behind all of this, so they misinterpret the motives and incorrectly view the impostor as the originator.
I tend to think of it as the 'Vandalog mentality'... vacuous instant experts worshipping all that is insipid, consumer friendly and fraudulent.
The offer of a painting from Banksy was conditional on it being auctioned and PRed ina specific way to the global media, this was deemed unnacceptable for obvious reasons and was rejected, theres another twist but I cant mention it...
ReplyDeleteIt's a fact Mr B was turned down by Team R-you can't buy love.
ReplyDeleteGraffiti Wars/Full Length Version! is Back on You Tube!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxdDlMyKTK8&has_verified=1
channel 4's lawyers obviously think B is talking shit too!
wowzers!
ReplyDeleteFunny thing about this docu was how amatuer it was. Robbo climbs fences covertly then gets into a waiting canoe, maybe he should have done the wall when he put the canoe there. Then there was Eine (the paedophile looking wanker) talking about Robbo and Banksy while cutting stencils. Either the producers fabricated the whole thing or the actors did. Either way it made Robbo look like a bit of an idiot.
ReplyDelete