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"Banksy's now ubiquitous anti-consumerist and anti-authoritarian tropes are fully exhausted in this most recent packaging and Dismaland is, quite literally, art

"Banksy's now ubiquitous anti-consumerist and anti-authoritarian tropes are fully exhausted in this most recent packaging and Dismaland is, quite literally, art about nothing. Consumerism is bad, Disney is evil, advertising is dishonest — we got it." http://www.businessinsider.com/banksys-dismaland-is-bad-and-boring-2015-8#ixzz3jpTFmyxr http://www.businessinsider.com/banksys-dismaland-is-bad-and-... He's getting mocked pretty bad on Tumblr too, which is notable considering how popular pictures of his work have been on there in the past.

celticninja 11y ago
People on tumblr probably don't realise when they are using a Banksy picture, much like they assumed daft punk ripped of Kanye West with harder better faster stronger or that Kanye was helping out an undiscovered musician when he partnered up with Paul McCartney.
- octo_t 11y ago
  I feel like you wildly missed the point of the jokes about kanye...
  - spacemanmatt 11y ago
    Maybe people near you thought it was funny, but there were a lot of people seriously unaware about Daft Punk or McCartney.
madaxe_again 11y ago
Well of course BI are mocking it - their audience is the target of his ire.
- pidg 11y ago
  I always thought BI was just a clickbait site with a fancy name.
- tim333 11y ago
  The author's "his overwrought images continue to be rooted in the same, familiar liberal values that people are all too eager to agree with" kind of implies he's going to be anti anything a bit lefty.
notahacker 11y ago
Banksy was always more interesting for his visually interesting images and choices of location than his politics though, and some of his best graffiti was literally "about nothing". I've always imagined him as someone who spends his nights as a caped crusader against consumerism but designs print advertising for FMCG companies for a day job... Anyway, it can't be as unoriginal as the "I'm going to take the highly original step of lampooning Paris Hilton... and fuel demand for an album most of us didn't realise she'd released" stunt he pulled off several years ago. But that got more attention than most of his street art too.
Brakenshire 11y ago
> Dismaland is, quite literally, art about nothing. Consumerism is bad, Disney is evil, advertising is dishonest — we got it. This is just a completely nonsensical statement. Since when has art been about intellectual knowledge? "Yeah, yeah, trees are beautiful, I get it, stop with the landscape paintings please". The purpose, at least in this case, is to take something that people already probably know, on an intellectual level, and give them some more visceral reaction to it. And, to repeat myself from the last thread about this, Banksy is repetitive and cliche-ridden, but if marketing/advertising/campaigning bludgeons the point home (Eat such and such fast food and have a happy relationship with your children! Use such and such deodorant and have a sexy girlfriend! Have you absorbed this political talking point yet!?) it's only fair that people trying to puncture that are allowed the same license to labour the point to the edge of boredom and despair.
- bcoates 11y ago
  I think he's saying "Consumerism is bad, Disney is evil, advertising is dishonest" is by-literally-I-mean-figuratively "nothing", as in this is not a relevant current concern. When you think "evil corporations doing bad things" are legacy media companies really what come to mind? Is it even in the top 10? The installation about Princess Dianna's death really adds to the "by and for people who stopped paying attention to anything 20 years ago" vibe.
  - rangibaby 11y ago
    "Mickey Mouse" copyright extensions are pretty bad IMHO.
  - tim333 11y ago
    There's loads of more recent that 20 years old stuff. Selfies, the migrants, payday loans, non functioning websites etc.
  - catshirt 11y ago
    i mean- how many "legacy media companies" have world class tourist attractions? ignoring their shows, movies, and music all together- how many celebrities do they create? they are a staple of American consumerism. Princess Diana seems carefully selected to me. a more recent death would be "too soon". a less famous death wouldn't be familiar. a less public death wouldn't prove the point. a less innocent death wouldn't be sympathetic.
Intermernet 11y ago
That actually sounds like copy from Banksy himself... Are we sure he doesn't moonlight as a "journalist" for BI?
at-fates-hands 11y ago
It would seem the art world has finally become weary of Banksy. Some of his works now sell for millions at high brow auction houses all over the world. For someone who espouses the evil of Disney, it looks as though he has a lot in common with the very things he apparently stands against in his art. Perhaps people are finally seeing the hypocrisy? FYI His net worth is estimated at somewhere north of $20 million: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellerahm/2013/10/22/banksy-the-20-million-graffiti-artist-who-doesnt-want-his-art-to-be-worth-anything/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellerahm/2013/10/22/banksy-t...

celticninja 11y ago

People on tumblr probably don't realise when they are using a Banksy picture, much like they assumed daft punk ripped of Kanye West with harder better faster stronger or that Kanye was helping out an undiscovered musician when he partnered up with Paul McCartney.

octo_t 11y ago
I feel like you wildly missed the point of the jokes about kanye...
- spacemanmatt 11y ago
  Maybe people near you thought it was funny, but there were a lot of people seriously unaware about Daft Punk or McCartney.

madaxe_again 11y ago

Well of course BI are mocking it - their audience is the target of his ire.

pidg 11y ago
I always thought BI was just a clickbait site with a fancy name.
tim333 11y ago
The author's "his overwrought images continue to be rooted in the same, familiar liberal values that people are all too eager to agree with" kind of implies he's going to be anti anything a bit lefty.

notahacker 11y ago

Banksy was always more interesting for his visually interesting images and choices of location than his politics though, and some of his best graffiti was literally "about nothing". I've always imagined him as someone who spends his nights as a caped crusader against consumerism but designs print advertising for FMCG companies for a day job... Anyway, it can't be as unoriginal as the "I'm going to take the highly original step of lampooning Paris Hilton... and fuel demand for an album most of us didn't realise she'd released" stunt he pulled off several years ago. But that got more attention than most of his street art too.

Brakenshire 11y ago

> Dismaland is, quite literally, art about nothing. Consumerism is bad, Disney is evil, advertising is dishonest — we got it. This is just a completely nonsensical statement. Since when has art been about intellectual knowledge? "Yeah, yeah, trees are beautiful, I get it, stop with the landscape paintings please". The purpose, at least in this case, is to take something that people already probably know, on an intellectual level, and give them some more visceral reaction to it. And, to repeat myself from the last thread about this, Banksy is repetitive and cliche-ridden, but if marketing/advertising/campaigning bludgeons the point home (Eat such and such fast food and have a happy relationship with your children! Use such and such deodorant and have a sexy girlfriend! Have you absorbed this political talking point yet!?) it's only fair that people trying to puncture that are allowed the same license to labour the point to the edge of boredom and despair.

bcoates 11y ago
I think he's saying "Consumerism is bad, Disney is evil, advertising is dishonest" is by-literally-I-mean-figuratively "nothing", as in this is not a relevant current concern. When you think "evil corporations doing bad things" are legacy media companies really what come to mind? Is it even in the top 10? The installation about Princess Dianna's death really adds to the "by and for people who stopped paying attention to anything 20 years ago" vibe.
- rangibaby 11y ago
  "Mickey Mouse" copyright extensions are pretty bad IMHO.
- tim333 11y ago
  There's loads of more recent that 20 years old stuff. Selfies, the migrants, payday loans, non functioning websites etc.
- catshirt 11y ago
  i mean- how many "legacy media companies" have world class tourist attractions? ignoring their shows, movies, and music all together- how many celebrities do they create? they are a staple of American consumerism. Princess Diana seems carefully selected to me. a more recent death would be "too soon". a less famous death wouldn't be familiar. a less public death wouldn't prove the point. a less innocent death wouldn't be sympathetic.

Intermernet 11y ago

That actually sounds like copy from Banksy himself... Are we sure he doesn't moonlight as a "journalist" for BI?

at-fates-hands 11y ago

It would seem the art world has finally become weary of Banksy. Some of his works now sell for millions at high brow auction houses all over the world. For someone who espouses the evil of Disney, it looks as though he has a lot in common with the very things he apparently stands against in his art. Perhaps people are finally seeing the hypocrisy? FYI His net worth is estimated at somewhere north of $20 million: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellerahm/2013/10/22/banksy-the-20-million-graffiti-artist-who-doesnt-want-his-art-to-be-worth-anything/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellerahm/2013/10/22/banksy-t...