Mimesis and Semiotics in the Works of Banksy Essay

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BanksyBanksy started off as a graffiti artist in England in the 1990s and rose to popular fame as a stencil artist when the film Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) appeared in movie theaters (ArtNet, 2021). Banksy was depicted as a renegade, anti-establishment artist whose commercialization was and prosperity was a paradox in and of itself: as a street artist specializing in stencils, his art was typically tied to a public space that defied the conventions of traditional art making. His pictures could be painted over by public works and lost forever—yet somehow his works had managed to penetrate the public consciousness, both because of the appeal of street art in the 1990s and into the 21st century and the anti-establishment message often depicted in his art. Today, Banksy is widely known for a mural painted in Bethlehem, satirizing the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as his Andy Warhol-like pieces that satirize classic works such as Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, which Banksy turned into “Girl with a Pierced Eardrum.” However, it was Exit Through the Gift Shop that enabled Banksy to catapult into celebrity street artist, as the film took a wry and satirical look at what it means to be a legitimate artist in today’s world of mass production, commercialization, and rip-off artists like Mr. Brainwash, who served as the subject of the film. Unlike other modern artists like Jackson Pollock, who specialized in abstract art or Picasso, who mastered many forms suck as cubism, Banksy’s works have been straight-forward street paintings produced using stencils that communicate in an ironic manner something controversial or anti-establishment. Yet, like Pollock and Picasso, Banksy’s unique approach to the art world helped to redefine what it means to be an artist in the modern world and at the same time enabled him to enjoy a certain amount of celebrity and prosperity that he otherwise would not have achieved. Through notoriety and the willingness to challenge the establishment, Banksy became a famous street artist whose random works (no one knows where or when they will pop up) have become a cause of celebration in popular cultural.One shocking image created by Banksy is called “Napalm” and features Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald on either side of the terrorized girl captured in a Pulitzer Prize winning photo from the Vietnam War.[footnoteRef:2] The photo is a critique on American exceptionalism since it was America’s war in Vietnam that contributed to such conditions as that experienced by the girl. In terms of semiotics, the work uses the symbols of Disney (Mickey Mouse) and fast food pop culture icon Ronald McDonald to juxtapose glib American innocence with the harsh reality of American interventionism abroad.

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It is an in-your-face anti-establishment work of street art that gets to the heart of what Banksy is all about. Another work that attacks American commercialization is “Christ with Shopping Bags,” which features the crucified Christ holding shopping bags.[footnoteRef:3] It is an attack on the way Christianity and in particular Christian holidays have been commercialized. The symbol of Christianity is ironically upended to attack the establishment once more, only this time it is…

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…its meaning due to the strange juxtapositions—such as in “Napalm”. “Napalm” is also a work that engages in abjection, since it depicts a nude terrorized nine year old girl in between a laughing Mickey and Ronald. It is a shocking display defiance in the face of American prurience. Banksy rejects the male gaze by avoiding gaudy displays of sexualization in his works. Instead he focuses on identity construction and how society frames its own meaning of itself: he takes the symbols society rallies around and subverts the meanings society has attached to them by juxtaposing them with his perception of the real world.In conclusion, Banksy is a challenging and unconventional artist who took to the streets to use art as a social and political weapon against the establishment. The mainstream recognizes him for his popularity but often does not know what to make of him: is he a showman or is he a threat to the establishment? Banksy is actually a little bit of both: he knows what motivates people and he uses the aura of mystery to keep his public entranced. He also attacks the establishment routinely by throwing the hypocrisy of modern culture back in its face through public works of art. Banksy remains a street artist—but he is one who has tapped into the zeitgeist of commercialization and uses that zeitgeist to promote his own unconventional art work, using satire and creative means deconstruction. He is not avant-garde: he is a post-post-modern reaction to an art world upended by capital, celebrity, and emptiness. If Banksy represents anything it….....

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