Latest / Mark and Pete / Latest Banksy Statue: Rebellion or Quiet Cooperation?

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Latest Banksy Statue: Rebellion or Quiet Cooperation? · Mark and Pete

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  Latest Banksy statue Rebellion or quiet cooperation?
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete. Yes when anti establishment arts
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  get art gets a plinth. 1 wonders who provided it.
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  Yes this is Mark and Pete. 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. A place to purge A statue
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  depicts a famous figure from the past, and some are made of rock,
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  stone or metal. But whichever way each figure is
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  cast, they're just a place for birds to settle.
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  Yes indeed. Well, once again this time a
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  famous statue has been erected. Yes, St.
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  Arts artist Banksy has confirmed a large statue that appeared in
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  central London is his work. And if you look at the bottom of
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  the plinth, he has signed it. Now this particular sculpture
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  which bears his signature depicts A suited man walking
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  forward off a plinth whilst carrying a flag that covers his
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  face. Now, one of the comments that
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  have been made about this is that in some political
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  commentators and also the media said this is a brilliant
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  commentary on a punctuous chest puffed out man in power with a
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  flag completely obscuring his vision, which is just sort of an
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  illustration that authority is about to fall off the edge of
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  the Cliff. Well, Mr. Pete, I wonder what
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  you think about this. I have my opinions.
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  I'm going to tell you that I think this is a great sort of
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  political commentary. I was rather impressed with the
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  the way that it was installed at breakneck speed.
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  But I think it's all about what it represents.
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  What say you about Banks's latest statue?
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  What? Just to give you some sort of
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  background to this, I've never been really impressed with the
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  Banksy art in that in it's sort of edgy but controlled edginess
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  in the sense I think a lot of our listeners will know this
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  phrase of controlled opposition. It may be that Mister Banksy in
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  his in his early days really was an edgy graffiti artist, but
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  very quickly once he gained notoriety, seems to have been
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  what is the word bought out or he sold out or it it may be
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  simply or even simpler than that, that he was really on the
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  side of the very left wing woke government that we the
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  governments that we have in many Western countries, including
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  Britain. And so when I see this, I, I saw
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  it as a comment against the, the sort of flag revolution, you
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  know, when people were putting flags up all over the country.
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  And at the time that some government agency contacted him
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  and asked him to do it and offered him a nice wad of cash
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  to do it and permission to put it on or provide the place for
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  the Prince to put it on. I that's when those that that
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  sort of flag erection and putting flags all over city
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  centres and such, what's happening was at its height.
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  So I'm just very suspicious. It seems to be having the flag
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  covering someone's face some some sort of be suited
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  gentleman. Is it, is it meant to be some
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  right wing politician? Is it meant to be a mixture of a
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  British right wing politician and a Trump type character?
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  That's the sort of thing that I think he's getting out and the
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  flags covering the face. In fact, we want to be all good
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  globalists and not bothered with the flag.
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  That's what I got from it and I'm not impressed with that in
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  that I not that I'm thinking it's a problem having that
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  opinion. You can have whatever opinion.
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  Like I just don't think that if it's in line with what the
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  governments across the West actually think anyway, that it's
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  edgy in any way. That's my take.
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  Well, interestingly, OK, so I'm going to take a slightly
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  different view. So if you look at the context of
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  the statue, so we could look at the statue and make comment on
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  it, but it's location is in Waterloo Place, St.
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  James's and the it's an area designed to celebrate
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  imperialism and military dominance within the 1800s
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  primarily. Now the sculptures sit near
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  statues of Edward the 7th, Florence Nightingale and Crimean
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  War Memorial. So essentially in the context
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  here, I think you're right about the flag scenario, because
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  again, we've had lots of controversy over people putting
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  up flags all around the country, and it's sort of being sort of
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  used as a political gesture. So I think in many ways there's
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  a little bit of a nod to that. But what I, what I do think is,
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  is that what I'm hearing is that people interpret this in
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  different ways. You know, I have my
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  interpretation. You've already given your
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  interpretation, not just of the artwork itself, but of what
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  Banksy himself is representing. I I do agree with one thing that
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  you said. So when Banksy started in his
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  career and he came to notoriety, yes, you would probably say that
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  as a graffiti artist, this was somebody who was just trying to
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  sort of get his artwork out there.
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  And maybe he has become, ironically, where he has been
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  sort of commenting on political society and things that are
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  going on in communities. Ironically, he's almost become
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  part of the the authority himself, part of the
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  establishment. Now, he may not actually say
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  that, but of course, obviously we would welcome his view if he
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  was to come on the show. But the thing here is, is that I
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  do like the fact that he is prepared to put something into
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  the public arena and get people thinking and talking.
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  Now, I have seen some media commentary where they've gone to
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  the public and say, what do you think?
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  And some people have just been staring at it in disbelief,
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  saying, well, I don't like his statue.
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  I prefer the others and others have said no.
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  It's a brilliant piece of artwork and more of it, please.
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  But if you're, if you were to sort of give some advice to
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  Banksy, Mr. Pete, what say you then about your thoughts on on
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  how he should move forward? Should he just simply stop or?
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  Carry on. I I think it's great that he
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  gets people talking and my problem hasn't been with his
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  ability as an artist. So yeah, often very, very well
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  executed pieces of art. No, because above your usual,
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  your usual graffiti I would say. But you know, if you're going to
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  be like that and try and be edgy, be actually edgy.
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  The next one, actually do something that goes against the
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  globalist hegemon that's running the world.
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  Go that route. And The thing is, if he did
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  that, he would get a huge amount of support as well.
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  You know, they're not the only ones with money and influence.
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  You know, go to both sides. I'm not saying just on one side,
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  but you actually make some sort of criticism of those people in
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  power. Then he would restore his
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  credibility as edginess. And in fact, even if I were to
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  give advice to, you know, if he is actually getting the, the
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  king shilling, you know, the government payment of some sort,
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  I don't know if that's true. But if that were to be true,
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  well, they'd still be good to let him do that because then
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  he'd get credibility. He'd be far more valuable as an
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  asset. So what I would say from his
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  point of view is, yeah, criticise something from the
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  other point of view, next from the right wing point of view.
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  And I, I think that you will restore your credibility and
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  then you, you know, you can then go on to make the left wing
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  point as well. Why not don't, don't just do it
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  from one point of view and you'll restore your credibility.
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  Do it, Banksy. Do it and come on the show and
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  tell us about it. Well, interestingly, because
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  again, one of the pieces that I thought was brilliant, this is
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  again just be clear before I come on to this, this is my
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  personal view but sadly doesn't exist anymore.
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  And it was a piece of graffiti that actually took place as a
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  painted scene on the Royal Courts of Justice.
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  Now, for those who remember, it was a protester lying on the
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  ground holding basically a blood spattered placard while a judge
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  loomed over him wielding a gavel.
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  Now, I thought that that was actually quite cutting.
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  Now, the question to that I have for you, Mr. Pete, is where is
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  the the bound? Where should the boundaries lie?
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  Now, obviously they decided that they were not going to keep this
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  Banksy. It was painted over and it was
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  erased. But I mean, here's here's just a
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  a wild suggestion. If you saw a Banksy stormed in
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  some political statement on #10 Downing Street, is that going
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  too far or should there be no boundaries?
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  I think there should be boundaries in that.
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  If it's someone else's property, you're not allowed to paint on
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  it. But you see that's what makes it
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  edgy. You shouldn't be allowed, but if
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  people do it anyway, they're taking the risk and that's what
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  makes it edgy. But you as soon as you say just
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  do it, it isn't edgy at all if you say let them do it.
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  So no, there has to be consequences.
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  You know, there's freedom of speech, freedom of expression,
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  and consequences for the expression that you have.
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  So yeah, I, I think doing it on #10 no, not acceptable.
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  Doing it on the Doorway to the Mark and Pete Studios, also not
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  acceptable. Banksy.
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  OK, stop doing it. Well, I, I'm saying that he can
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  do. And can you please tell me when
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  you're going to do it so we can sell it?
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  But the fact of the matter is, is that to our listeners, yes,
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  Banksy has installed his artwork on both private and public
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  profit property. And this is widely interpreted
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  mainly as political statements. Often some of them have been
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  retained, but many have been removed.
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  The latest statue that we see is quite clearly a monument to
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  controversy.