'The artist is so disturbed by his portrayal in Channel 4's Graffiti Wars, shown last month, that he has resorted to more conventional protests – a formal letter of complaint to the broadcaster'
There was rumour that Banksy was preparing an 'action' against Graffiti Wars I had assumed this was malicious gossip from Robbo fans but this article confirms its reality. I'm surprised and shocked that Banksy wants to draw further attention to this show, the salient point seems to be the implication he may have been involved somehow in Robbo's injuries. Having watched the show it takes a leap in logic to go from what is said, to this conclusion, I'm not sure highlighting this helps?
Behaviour indeed that seems incredibly out of keeping with a counter culture image based on critiquing society, seemingly so touchy about criticism through TV.
Yeah, Banksy is disturbed alright...disturbed in the fucking head. What a petulant little prick!
ReplyDeleteDamage his credibility?? He did that to himself a long time ago and now he hasn't got any left.
Just goes to show what a snide lying cunt he is though when he says he didn't know that piece was by Robbo. His top assistant is an old school graffiti writer who knows Robbo well, so there's no possible way he didn't know exactly what he was doing. It was calculated disrespect intended to say that Robbo's stuff is the equivalent of wallpaper. He did the same kind of 'wallpaper' diss to Nick Walker at the cans festival with the gorilla piece.
Still, it doesn't really surprise me that the egomaniac control freak has spat his dummy. I reckon there will be a lot more people looking to give him a slap after this, just for being the kind of weak little pussyhole who has to go running to the teacher to grass.
what a revolting, spineless, snivelling little weasel this bloke is.
ReplyDeleteSeems like more people every day are getting wise to the Banksy bullshit machine... http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/08/26/the-banksy-deception/
ReplyDeleteAs if any more proof were needed that street art is really dead... http://osocio.org/message/become_a_cop_banksy_style/
ReplyDeleteVandalog will probably love it though. Looks like his kind of thing.
Format Letter of Complaint
ReplyDeleteDear Dr Funky,
I must write to you regarding your blog and express in the strongest possible terms my outrage at the content and comment you seem so willing to permit being on its' pages, much of it calling into question my morality, my character, my empire, my rabid publicity machine, my colonial expansionism, my web of influence, my hypocrisy, my plagiarism, the artistic ability of both myself and my cartel of yes men and my unsatiatable appetite for cash at any cost to the broader culture and narcissistic addiction to ONLY good publicity.
You will be the second to recieve a letter, after those pesky uncontrollable ingrates at Channel 4 who denied all my attempts at bribery and intimidation and continued with their digusting piece of ill-opinionated rot and there are many more on my list.
I'd like to point out that just because i have made countless millions for holding society to account and set myself up as the voice of the people and put myself on a pedestal as a bastion of morality and champion of free speech and the underdog this in no ways assures my own personal integrity nor should it and anyone who thinks it should just shut the hell up and go away NOW or I'll scream and scream until I'm sick.
You should all know that its actually fine to have free speech and stuff as long as it agrees with my pathologically aggressive capitalist agenda, and flatters my insatiable ego and that Channel 4 documentary just encouraged thought crime and Mrs B agrees, as always with what I say.....so does my entourage.... who are not violent, ever, so don't even think it.
Rob
Haha, yeah. Who would have thought that street art's famous rebel leader is actually a Daily Mail reader who lives in Tumbridge Wells?
ReplyDeleteA formal letter of complaint eh? How hardcore.
Wow! What a bellend! If he had ignored it it would have been forgotten soon enough...plus why didnt he defend himself to the programme makers at the time? His silence made himself look bad...the programme makers let him defend himself...he has only himself to blame.
ReplyDeleteIm not surprised theres no word of this on the urban art official blog
Anyone who has got any doubts as to whether he knew that was a Robbo piece or not, a picture of the original was in Rob's facebook album before he'd destroyed it. Someone posted a link to it on Robbo's flickr in January 2010, but we all know he's lying anyway
ReplyDeletehow could you not know a piece that clearly read "Robbo" was not a Robbo piece?
ReplyDeletethe empire is crumbling! yeee-haaaa!
Yeah, Banksy even tried to lie in the programme by saying that it wasn't him who got slapped by Robbo, when everyone knows that it was because there were loads of witnesses, and even people like Eine, who's birthday party it was has publicly said that it happened.
ReplyDeleteKind of makes you wonder what else Banksy is lying about doesn't it.
Strange too how Robbo's facebook and flickr page were deleted by those companies after somebody made a complaint about them. I'm seeing a bit of a pattern here. Looks like certain people are really desperate to control the message and rewrite history.
brilliant! the New Zealand cops wear flared trousers!
ReplyDeleteThe Banksy propaganda machine is becoming more self-deluded by the day. It's starting to make Gaddaffi look almost sane by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI knew they took down his flickr but didn't know they took down facebook. Do you know how hard that is to get them to take down a facebook page, they wouldn't even take down the Raoul Moat support page! They are desperate to control and the more the general public start to realise they are being played and lied to and that they are filtering and controlling the information they are fed, the more they will turn on him. People don't like being duped, especially in art, people like to make there own minds up with all the facts put in front of them and to form their own opinions.
ReplyDeleteRobbo's flickr didnt get pulled by flickr. According to my sources (very reliable) the team got in touch with flickr and flickr knew nothing about it and said it must have been deleted.
ReplyDeleteRobbo didn't do it, it was a historical record of the whole episode and demonstrated the grass roots graffiti community's outrage at the act (which Banksy is also denying....work it out) and had become a forum for people worldwide to discuss all the bullshit associated with these people. Then it just disappeared, deleting a whole episode of history.
Theres a few people who've stood up to these cunts been the victim of hacking and deletion. If you know what youre doing, (and these guys can afford the best) it's a piece of piss apparently...its just a matter of 'rainbow tables'....
"Kind of makes you wonder what else Banksy is lying about doesn't it" - OMFG...protesting too much maybe???
ReplyDeleteTo those who arent involved with street art - the fans ,the fence watchers, Banksy is the pinnacle of street art. To those who flip prints and make money publishing books he is the street art messiah. To those on silkys forum he is god. To those who actually practise street art or run in actual circles of involvement of art/graf/the gallery world...tales of mr B being a less than nice/genuine person are two a penny and enough to fill a book. what is surprising is that for someone so clever, it is his own publicity machine - this letter, the programme, the robbo feud (that is fuelled by ego after being slapped), that is killing him. poetic that the machine that made him (pr makes an artist nowadays, not the art), is also the machine that is destroying him.
ReplyDeletefor those that think the guy is perfect, someone who is never wrong, and if you dont think hes amazing then your a hater...well then if you are an unabashed lover of mr b , then you dont really run in proper street art circles and you frankly dont know the truth behind the scenes - and thats the way he wants it.
truth is, mr b is very very clever and plays the game well like most street artist business men - dface, sheperd, banksy...for instance theres a quote i gleaned (and i think it refers to eine), when banksy was in australia for a show, and at the dinner table he was asked by the hosts how he was putting up so much when they have seen a lot of him at parties and bars and this answer was 'im putting up right now...' - he had his assistants out there doing the leg work for him - damian hirst or the street art scene stylee. Not to mention his famous proclamations in dalston that he was squatting/ taking over illegally the space for the one with the cows or pigs inside...when in reality it was paid for by PUMA who were going round the opening giving out puma branded graffitti gloves (thin rubber ones)....if you meet his assistants or people in the scene then you probably have more anecdotes like these, i know i do but cant be arsed to type.
his work is good..good not great. but he has built a house around his work that has turned into a maoist state and its sad. if he hadnt have hired all these people he wouldnt be where he is/was but also if he didnt have those people he might have lasted longer. imagine if he did the work without being a dick? ...sigh....
the reason people are against banksy is truly not his art, or him making money...if it wasnt for him opening a certain door many artists wouldnt be able to be a professional artist full time...but then also if it wasnt for banksy street art wouldnt be full of pr people, lawyers, media hype and maybe the underground would still be there and producing exciting work...so you see i dont hate banksy blindly. i know him, met him twice at POW afterparties (esp one drunken meeting in soho on that road with phoenica in a shit club thats now shut down), but i know that behind all the books and media praise he is a cold caluclating person...and if theres one thing i hate is liars who try and get away with getting one over on people, and when he starts acting like this - taking written action like a whining bitch...well i had to speak out
cue the hate from the banksy fanboys who have never know real or been involved in the scene other than checking out blogs and buying prints.
He's just a businessman, simple as that. He saw a way to sell stuff to stupid people by advertising himself for free and he seized the opportunity. He needed to get paid...and didn't care if he had to shit all over a culture to do it. Wolf in sheep's clothing I think the term is. You can't be a nasty lying ruthless cunt for long without people finding out about it though. Most of us on here knew the score about him ages ago, but now it looks like the mask he wears for the general public is slipping too. Seems like he's started to drown in the ocean of bullshit that he created, and not a moment too soon either.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but this spat aint gonna bring him down though, really. The art world will still buy him and probably think more of him after this. Never met him, but I have met Bet Lynch from Coronation Street, she's an old cracker!
ReplyDeletePeople might buy into his carefully constructed myth for a while longer, but once they get wise to the hype they'll see that the works themselves are pretty empty and ametuerish and they'll soon tire of it. History is littered with fads that didn't endure because they had no real substance. Banksy will go the same way.
ReplyDeleteYeah like Warhol, Hirst and countless others artist who arguably have no substance...
ReplyDeleteLike them Banksy, will be protected by a small but very influential butch of collectors and public galleries! And it's worth way to much sat in their collections for them to see it fade like a fad, he is pretty well protect by the art establishment now.
They don't really care about the merits that his works hold, it isn't dead in there eyes, it's living breathing pound signs.
Even if the public and media turn against it, thats never stopped the contemporary art world before. Most big name artist have been ridiculed in the press and in the public eye throughout history and they still show at major world gallery, have books published and works sold for vast sums; it a game for the elite. They really don't care what the public think...
It's a shame he's not going to fade away..
I think we're just going to have to live with him being around !
Warhol and Hirst are in a completely different
ReplyDeleteleague to Banksy though as far as commodity value goes. He isn't really on the
radar of the kind of collectors you mention. Many of them have questionable
taste I admit, but even they are a bit more sophisticated than to buy mediocre
cartoon art. Yeah, a few gormless celebs buy his
stuff, but I think the high end art market rightly regards him as a bit
shit.
What you need to realise is that Banksys work is only popular, credible and collectable when seen in context of this fake Robin Hood myth, which is a complete bullshit, Hirst and Warhol never claimed to be anything other than businessmen Banksy claims to be a bleeding heart liberal, people make an investment in Banksy as they want to be associated with the empathic prolatarian non-brand through their purchase. Once the illusion is broken the spell is too and the bubble with burst and the charity shops will be full to bursting and everyone will be laughing it all off as collective insanity! Might be a couple of years yet but it's as sure as eggs is eggs.
ReplyDeleteYep, completely agree with that. Banksy is very aware of this too, that's why he goes to what often might seem like absurd lengths to try to protect the myth. He can't police the whole of the internet or the media though, however much he might try to. The tide is definitely turning.
ReplyDeletewe will see when all you twats are shitting yourselves running through london, like rat race, to get his latest print.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I'd ever buy a Banksy print is to sell it on to some fanboy muppet like you at a vastly inflated price. Then I'd laugh in your face in a couple of years when it ends up being worth next to nothing.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for Banksys army of big breasted, strong legged women to come and police my town.
ReplyDeletefan-bloody-tastic!
I wonder if he has a little 'tasche going on
I wouldn't get too excited if I were you. The Banksy Gestapo is more likely to look like a race of Vandalog clones...nerdy virgins with 3 foot long heads and the facial expression and speech patterns of a stroke victim.
ReplyDeleteMy God, some of you nerdy little fuckwits really do talk shite. Your grand delusions of a Banksy empire crumbling and burning as he plays his violin are very imaginative and highly amusing. It's just not going to happen though is it? A 45 minute, one sided documentary on a shit channel, late at night and full of inaccuracies will not change no ones opinion of the artist, rightly or wrongly. This is FACT!
ReplyDeleteFuck off Wilf, nobody likes you here.
ReplyDeleteIts all bullshit. Robbo fell off a ladder and C4 had a lazy producer, the independent had a intern writer guessing, the observer will leak anything against any other media... its all crap... believe what you want! Banksy has fallen from grace for me anyway, as the last three years output has been dross... fuck all to do with media... this bollocks will change nothing, the banksy brand will grow... next stunt, before xmas will be huge... watch this space...
ReplyDeleteBanksy seems to think it will change people's opinion of him though, otherwise he wouldn't be whining like a bitch about it would he.
ReplyDeleteBanksy don't give a shit... as for Jo and his partners in Pest Control... yes! To be fair when I watched it Banksy did come across as a cunt... It was badly cut, wrongly reported pile of crap... no wonder Banksys people wanted to put some facts right? As for the publics take its throw away tv, which will never affect his art status nor his public perception... he's the only one doing that through dreadful street pieces and even worse prints... of late... the next twist will and needs to be good! Come on Jo the Canns was good the Bristol Museum was brilliant....time for another?
ReplyDeleteBanksy was misrepresented, no doubt about that, be he a genuine twat or not. But to suggest that charity shops will be laden with Banksy prints from disgruntled art lovers is just wishful thinking from those that invested all their stupid money in Micallef prints only to watch them loose %75 of their value.
ReplyDeleteDrSpunky = WILF
ReplyDeleteYou really are a dumb fuck... please fuck off? eh..
team robbo auction -vibe was like a power station.
ReplyDeletestrong energy fields -made of love.
No one would off heard of Robbo unless of Banksy...Fact! Also the general public don't give a crap about Robbo, I've never met him.... is this the princess diana effect...who cares? Really?
ReplyDeleteI've met him. He's a nice guy. Plenty of people knew of Robbo actually. He was the most famous graffiti writer in London in the days before the internet and PR agents, which was a time when people had to put a lot of hard work in on the street to get recognition, not just bribe a few bloggers to promote you. I don't think Robbo would really care that much about what the general public thinks anyway. He's got the respect of his peers, which is all that really matters. The only people who respect Banksy are retarded fanboy dribblers and old grannies who haven't got a clue about street art. So I don't really see what your point is. You're not saying anything particularly original or insightful.
ReplyDeleteBanksy will go down in history as the biggest art 'heist' of all time . he has been laughing at the fools spending indecent sums of money for stuff that takes him half an hour to knock , for the last ten years. not to mention the fact he has been opening doors for others to do the same , funnyasfuck...more power to his arm i say.
ReplyDeletethe joke may be getting old, but i for one am looking forward to the punchline. remember the ice cream van with all its promise of sweet treats turns out to be selling cold turd in a cone, a turd that many still savour the flavour of .
^^^Possibly the best post ever. Nicely explains for the fanboy mugs why this thing is much more than just about Robbo. Sure, he's an important part of the story, but Team Robbo is a mindset that represents much bigger issues too.
ReplyDeletethis isnt FACT...one sided cant be thrown at this programme as they offered banksy a chance to comment (FACT) and he declined, so it was his fault its one sided...he had the opportunity. shit channel? really? i disagree- channel four is a great channel - what do you like? brooklynite tv?
ReplyDeletelate night? yes, like most youth programming, but then on the internet accessible 24-7...if banksy wasnt such a pussy and pulled it. erm also your shit diatribe said it wont change anyones opinion...YES it has...FACT...no matter how much whitewashing we get (banksy pulling the clips, the banksy forum not mentioning it)...everyone who saw it (hundreds of thousands) will come away second guessing banksy...FACT
why didnt they put some facts straight on camera when they we offerered...oh thats right, because they didnt care for it, then when it was aired the feedback was negative for Banksy so they are now damage control not pest control...they dropped the ball
ReplyDeletePS cans was shit
this is true. but also banksy came across as a cunt - FACT
ReplyDeleteHe's been like this for years, just a little prick, anyone who knows him would tell you.
ReplyDeleteLike him or loathe him 90% of the chumps on here wouldn't be reading this blog if it wasn't for him. In fact I doubt this blog would have been here either.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not painting trains you're an art fag.
ReplyDeletethis blog wouldnt exist if there was no banksy...because no banksy = no money grabbing shit street art to bang on against.
ReplyDeletePlenty of other money grabbing shit street art out there to bang on against.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there is. But you're missing the point. Banksy was the inspiration for all the shit money grabbing street art that followed. They all just try to copy his business model. So in effect he created the whole stinking pile of bullshit. That's why this blog needs to exist.
ReplyDeletewhat about street bombers, etching, fire extinguishers, rooftops, tagging, keying, wall pieceing
ReplyDeletethats what i meant but you made it make sense
ReplyDeleteAll good but you've still got to be painting trains as well. Maybe I'll include etching, keying and tagging but
ReplyDeleteBanksy does fire extinguishers
Insect does rooftops
Pure Evil does wall piecing.
Trains is the level.
The only reason Banksy got his "Laugh Now One Day We'll Be in Charge" stencil crap on the tubes was cos he paid a certain unnamed graffiti writer to go to Parsons Green sidings, and paint it for him then take some pics then pretended he did it.
ReplyDeleteThat demonstrates his colonial ambitions and fakeness from day one....won't be in charge for long at this rate.
You've got to be a right sad cunt if you're middle aged and still spraying your 'gangsta' tags on the side of public transport. Move along old man, your time has been and gone. Grow up and get a fucking job like the rest of us and pay your way.
ReplyDeleteNot me Dr but at least i was there and did do it many moons ago unlike you easily fooled tourist wannabes addicted to kitsch cos thats all it is, an insignificant blip on the radar of real art, a suburban Cul de Sac of bungalows in the sprawling and enthralling landscape of art history.
ReplyDeleteGet an education real art is the future, not transport and certainly not the sacharrin gimmicks, which you clearly find it so hard to accept cos of the dough you spent on this tat this charlatan churns out.
''get an education, real art is the future''
ReplyDeleteHahahahha, what the fuck does that mean? You sound like one of those jedward cunts. I can just imagine you having that idiotic whiney little boys voice.
Real art man, it's the future!
He probably means that 'real art' is going to be popular in the future once all the hype around fake cunts like Banksy has died out. I know that's probably a concept that's a bit difficult to comprehend for a low IQ Banksy fan such as yourself though.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the translation but I'm sure the idiot can speak for himself. BTW, I don't like Banksy's work and I can't understand the admiration his GCSE offerings receive. I see his prints as an investment, a great way to make money, which I spend on my family and those I love. I also reinvest it into the art I really like (none of it by jboy I might add.)
ReplyDeleteCanns good? the only good thing would have been if both ends of the tunnel were blocked and a fire started inside, wiping out all those stencil artists. STENCIL ARTISTS!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd Bristol Museum? Statues with paint spilled on them and other such weak drivel!?!?
The Exit movie was top class, but the last good thing he did before that was the pet shop (an exhibition of animatronics made by other people).
This is because he's not actually a very good artist, and without the pr nobody outside of the street art scene and a handful of hipsters would give a shit!
Same can be said for street art in general in fact.
Let's hope Banksy's slow demise sinks the ship for all of them...
if graffiti is about love, how come it generates so much anger in the general public? they're the suckers whose rates go up to pay for it to be removed!
ReplyDeletehey, I wonder if they're the suckers who pay for Banksy pieces to be covered, protected, and restored?
whatever. GO TEAM!
what the hell is "real art" anyway?
ReplyDeletethat's like telling teenage sweethearts that what they're feeling isn't "real love" because they haven't been together 50 years through hell and high water!
anyone who tries to inflict their view of what is and isn't art on another is a fascist and should be ignored. appreciation of art is an individual thing and should be respected. slop on a train is art to some, slop on a canvas art to another.
the more art the better I say. the more people being creative and expressing themselves the better. fully self-expressed human beings are happy human beings.
it's up to us as individuals to ignore what doesn't interest us and focus our energy on what does.
hype the shit you like
but don't take money, free gifts, and other goodies to hype shit that you wouldn't back with your own money and time
MORE ART - LESS PR!!!
Hows Charlie?
ReplyDeleteHear he's a sucker for the cutting edge underground movement? Look forward to your show soon.....
oh and I wish no ill to anyone! Fingers crossed for Robbo! Peace....
ReplyDeleteYour sold called graff king sold out... meet charlie....your hero sold out? fool...I hope robbo pulls through!
ReplyDelete