INTRODUCTION:

       From traveling through Brooklyn to Manhattan, I felt satisfied with the easy commute I had to go to reach the Banksy Museum. There was only one train line I had to go to, which was the N train, which made the trip very cheap and accessible to reach the museum. After reaching Canal Street, I walked around to find the museum till I saw a photo of Banksy right on top of a 3-story building. Immediately I walked in and climbed the stairs to the cashier on the counter. After showing him my student ID, he gave me a discount to the point where I had to pay $26. When my ticket was paid, he pointed to the entrance of the third floor of the museum where my journey to the Banksy Museum would begin.

SECTION 1 (PALESTINE AND UKRAINE SECTION):

“The Bethlehem Wall” by Banksy

“Ukraine Murals” by Banksy

       It was quite fascinating to observe art works, in which Banksy revealed his political stance on certain issues that were occurring in the world. Most notably, he has spread awareness through graffiti and even took the time to post them in his social media accounts to illustrate the damage that the wars in Palestine and Ukraine were to the innocent civilians who lived there. As shown in “The Bethlehem Wall”, he was willing to travel to a warzone area through a series of illegal tunnels to get his voice heard of the anger and disappointment he felt of the lost lives that were occurring. Many of the war paintings I’ve seen, such as Picasso’s “Guernica” that was discussed in one of the lectures, were all made by artists at their homes or pleasant locations and eventually shown in museums for display. Banksy, however, was very unique in that he was an artist who was willing to travel to dangerous places, in which many of them were bombed, to paint on damaged properties of what he thought were detrimental events that were occurring in those areas. This was also proven in the “Ukraine Murals”, especially with the street paintings of the woman holding a fire extinguisher while wearing a gas mask and the one with a child using judo on an old man. It just illustrates the high amount of unusual defense methods that innocent civilians had to go through when defending themselves in a war that they are not adapted to.

SECTION 2 (UNITED KINGDOM SECTION):

“Queen Vic” by Banksy

“Queen Ziggy Stardust” by Banksy

“Stop and Search” by Banksy

       Banksy made many graffiti works in the United Kingdom that mostly depicted him questioning those who have a lot of power and influence on society. For instance, he was not afraid to voice his social criticisms towards many monarchs. Within the “Queen Vic” painting, he drew a figure of Queen Victoria sitting on top of a woman. The context behind this was fueled by his anger at Queen Victoria making a statement that opposed gay rights claiming that, “…women are not able to be gay.” This painting was created during a time when gay rights were limited in Great Britain. As a result, the artwork raised awareness about the tyranny of the monarch, who ignored the concerns of the people and failed to address them. Another work of art that Banksy made of a monarch was the “Queen Ziggy Stardust” painting. This piece of graffiti, however, was made to compliment Queen Elizabeth by depicting her as Ziggy Stardust who was a fictional character that became an icon in rock music. This can furthermore show Banksy the complementary thoughts he had on both characters and their similarities to one another. Other than monarchs, Banksy was also shown to heavily criticize British law enforcement. As shown in the painting “Stop and Search”  a police officer stops and checks Dorothy’s bag from “The Wizard of Oz”. This shows the ridiculousness of Great Britain’s stop and search policy that was occurring during this time, as it highlights the violation of the rights of British citizens (Mainly of which belong to minority groups). Most of these people were also shown to be innocent, as represented by Dorothy and the flowers she had in her bag.

SECTION 3 (UNITED STATES AND FRANCE SECTION/CONCLUSION):

“If graffiti changed anything-it would be illegal” by Banksy

“Child Labor” by Banksy

       The main icon that Banksy used in many of his drawings was that of a “Rat”. When graffiti was born in the 20th century, it was seen as a dangerous art tool because of its damage towards properties that were owned by property and business owners. Even if people want to get rid of them, I’ve learned that the “Rat”icon was used as a symbol by Banksy to show how graffiti artists cannot be easily disposed of in society. Furthermore, Banksy rather sees it as an important artist tool for street artists to spread their ideals on large objects to depict it towards a larger audience. This can further motivate social change and even cause people to recognize issues that they’ve never known before. One of these rat paintings is shown in “If graffiti changed anything it would be illegal”, which shows Banksy’s perspective on the mass impact graffiti has on people’s rights. I also started to gain a perspective on how Banksy’s artworks are not at all damaging to property owners. Mayor Bloomberg created a bounty hunt for Banksy fearing that his works would damage the reputations of many business owners. However, many of them are under the control of the property owners. One of those graffiti works was the “Child Labor” graffiti, which was painted in a Bronx property painting and was eventually removed to be stored. Many property owners would even go as far as to sell them to museums or auctions, which raised questions on their morality.