Who wants to keep this street art anyway?

Published: September 8, 2011

IT is amusing that the “Banksy landlord” (September 1) holds captive a specimen of guerilla art with all the zeal of a zookeeper.

That his CCTV hopes to protect the “vandalism” from “vandalism” is a pathos that all street artists wish to provoke. That the landlord has become an accidental art dealer, and is in chaos as to how to harness the windfall from his property, may be a knowing trap that Banksy has left behind, as a commentary on the farcical relationship between art and money, without having to say a thing. By just setting the scene, he can rely on greed and hubris to enter stage right and vegetable and petal throwing from stage left. And another star of Andy Warhol’s dictum is born.

All street art by definition is ephemeral. It is a multi-layered dialogue, a strata in pigment, whose nuances are mostly understood by its practitioners.

By putting security on this stencil, it inhibits a show of solidarity from taggers who are sympathetic with Tox’s current incarceration. If anything, the landlord has created a trap himself and confirms the hierarchy of wanting the money but not the spirit. This preservation is the antithesis of why street art exists. As it is a liberation from the college and gallery systems where qualifications are as integral as those of a brain surgeon.

Although there is precedence for the grinding and transferral of Banksy sponsored walls, the Tox stencil lacks the universal appeal and satirical cut of other works.

Nor was it ever intended to be. It is just a character endorsement of a much-maligned tag artist. And like other street art, hopes for an afterlife as T-shirts and prints on market stalls.

So I say to the landlord with delusions of copyright. You are upsetting the habitat. Remove the Perspex and release it back to the wild to be devoured.
MARK NEWELL
Maiden Lane, NW1

Genuine?

HAS anyone investigated if this is a real Banksy; I don’t think this is genuine.

It’s not cleaver enough. I saw someone working on the image in daylight and I don’t think it was Banksy. The same person came back later with someone else to put up the Perspex-covered frame. Now the owner of the house wants to sell for £250,000.

It’s easy to copy Banksy’s style. But it’s not easy to come up with a original Banksy idea. This one is a bit weak.
Stephan Attalides
Jeffrey’s Place, NW1