Who is Banksy? Does anybody really know?
This mysterious human being has captured our attention and become our most favourite artist, for the time being that is. He has created many different forms of artwork including painting on a canvas and conceptual sculptures, but his main focus is graffiti art. There was a documentary made about this fascinating artist, Exit Through the Gift Shop, that was nominated for an Academy Award. His process of displaying his art publicly to send a message really is what makes us adore him. The fact that he does not have to show his identity proves to society that it is not about the artist himself when it comes to art, but rather the message that the artist is trying to get across. The Story Behind Banksy can provide you with more background information about what Banksy does!
Banksy really utilizes space to convey his messages.
Here we see an image of one of his artworks where he only graffitied the person in the doorway, yet he has utilized the space surrounding his artwork to add to his message. The negative space, being the space around the hovered over man, is what gives the viewer an opportunity for interpretation. An idea here is to show this image to children and ask them to tell a story of the man…
What do they think happened to that man? What does the space around the man say? Was it his fault or someone or something else’s fault? Why do you think this?
These are definitely questions that will get your little artists’ minds turning. Now have them create an image and post it somewhere outside so the background can create the story of their image. People walking by will stop and think, even for a few seconds, of what is going on with that image they have created.
For more on Banksy, and photographs of his work, head to http://banksy.co.uk !
Author: Victoria Parolini
Word count: 339
Kid's Creative Space 