BANKSY  UNDER  THE  MICROSCOPE

Almost everything today can be seen on social media as the majority of people participate in at least one social network. This allows the world and people to be just a touch away virtually. Social media allows everything to be more instant: apps like twitter and Instagram allow a quicker and more direct feed.  Art being seen through social media is very interesting, because art from anywhere in the world can be accessed from the comfort of your home. I am able to view art from Great Britain although l live in New York; I don’t have to physically be in front of the art to view it. Artists like Banksy have used social media to spread their messages and it has gained him many followers.  

“Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.” - Banksy

 Banksy’s Instagram  is very closely watched, he has over a million followers. It gives you links to his website and his YouTube channel. He posts his artwork very frequently on his page, almost every few days. He gets thousands of comments in a day. He has a very active Instagram page. He has almost 700 posts on his Instagram page. 


With his very active Instagram page, Banksy allows you to see his new art and the messages he’s trying to spread. He has people from all over the world following him; just looking at his Instagram page you can see comments in various different languages. 


His account is fairly new; it's barely a year old. To see how his art is being displayed on social media for everyone to see and comment on is a big deal, because not everyone knows of him by name but has seen his art. Social media allows people to but a name to his very controversial art. 

Banksy has spread his various messages through Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and even went as far as making a movie to spread his art. When it comes to Banksy, not much is known about him. Banksy’s art can be traced back to the 1990’s when he started as a graffiti artist and was a part of a graffiti group called DrybreadZ crew. Banksy back then was more of a freehand artist; he used stencils but on very few occasions. When Banksy began to create his unique stencil style, he started to get noticed quickly. 


In 2005 when Banksy took to the West Bank Barrier between Palestine and Israel, it started up a lot of controversy. His stencil was a man pulling the wall and peaking over into the other side. This is ironic because the wall is there to keep both people in their own territories. 


Banksy’s website is very ironic because it is all white, unlike all of his art. There are very few colors or words on his website. Most of Banksy’s art has a slogan and or is very bright and alive. The color choice of Banksy’s website allows you to only focus on the art. The white on the pages remind me of a blank canvas. The homepage of Banksy’s website is one picture with no words and nothing else to look at; when you click the picture, it only makes it bigger so you can study it. It looks like a man kneeling down who is praying. His body looks real, and he has a hoodie on. It is all in dark colors; nothing in the picture is standing out except that he is grabbing his head as if he is in pain. The whole picture is hopeful yet bleeding out pain.  The dark colors used express the pain. When you click the picture, you get the background of where the painting is located. The man is kneeling in a doorway that is the only thing left standing of a building that has collapsed. It looks like the building was blown up because not anything besides the doorway is standing. The irony is he is still able to kneel down and pray although everything around him is broken and collapsed. It really reminded me of how to never give up faith no matter how hard things get. When you click the picture again, it brings you to different picture. The pictures continue on the website as you click but none come with any words. They all have white back pages so you can only focus on the paintings. As I looked through the pictures, I began to realize everything on the website homepage was Banksy's trip to the Gaza Strip.  I was amazed all over again with his art and the statement he was trying to make.