This past weekend, I joined my friend on a walk across Manhattan. It was an amazing experience, even if my feet would tell you otherwise at the end of our seven-hour trek. It was incredible to see over the span of 15 miles how many times the fashion, architecture, and vibes could change so rapidly. Of our many observations, one detail that stuck out to me was the graffitied words “Banksy vs Hektad” across the side of a building. Having been familiar with the name Banksy, a mysterious street artist whose identity has been kept secret to this day, and who has been largely responsible for shaping the art/media scene for the past ten years, I wanted to look into Hektad, whose name I had less familiarity with. Why was there a competition between the two? Who was watching? I wanted to know.
Unfortunately, after a few hours of googling, I still didn’t understand. Banksy rose to prominence between 2013 and 2017 and solidified his household prevalence through his painting shredding stunt in 2018 (during which one of Banksy’s art pieces was auctioned and its final sale prompted a self shredder).
As of today, the discourse surrounding Banksy largely reflects controversial opinions regarding Banksy’s approachability and authenticity. Many artists believe that Banksy has become a “sellout” for pursuing copyright legislation while criticizing authoritarianism. Some disagree, citing the direct relationship between fame and dissenters. You wouldn’t call Lebron a sellout just because you play well at your neighborhood basketball court, would you, one Reddit user had commented. Others believe that Banksy’s art is too crude and lacks depth while others believe that just because it doesn’t take an art history major to understand his work, doesn’t mean that his work lacks meaning. Hektad is another street artist who has gained prominence from a less precise method of graffitiing (Banksy uses stencils, which is why the edges of his installations are cleaner).
My assumption regarding the statement I saw on Saturday is that the writer was making a commentary on authenticity, reputation, and style. But who can know for sure other than those that have either followed the Banksy discourse continuously or the writer themselves? That’s when I realized, that is the art of graffiti: ambiguity. You can either be privy to the conversation, sentiments, and impact of artists in the urban scene, or you can watch the drama unfold from a third-party perspective, happy to piece together years of a conversation that can still be traced back to the paint cans evident on the sides of NYC buildings. Either way, there is a question to be asked and an answer to be supposed, blurring lines between impact and purpose until we can call the whole process art in and of itself.
For example, in my research, I remember googling, “Is Banksy a sellout?” The very act of my doing so is proof of the impact of the art. Graffiti is an expression meant to take up room. To confuse people, enrage others, prompt conversation, and mark territory. The art that overwrites, replaces, adds to, or modifies is art that has been created anew. And whether or not you have an art history degree, you will have some reaction to it. Your reaction is proof of their art. Your reaction is your own art, like meta art.
Anyone who knows me knows my obsession with meta (not the corporation, the english word that denotes an entity’s reference to itself). Metaphysics is the physics of physics. Metadata is the data of data. Metaphilosophy is the philosophy of philosophy. Meta defines exactly what it means to be human: the obsession with the intangible. Even Meta the corporation refers to its own reference to the world. We’re already living in a virtual copy of the world. Might as well own it in branding…
To get back to the point, Banksy is no longer an artist talked about for his work. His work might be the basis of conversation, but the center of the conversation relates almost entirely to his philosophy, reception, and symbolism. My next question would be whether including Hektad in the conversation is meant to change Hektad’s relevance from his work to his metawork, or meant to change the entire conversation from meta to work or work to meta. Maybe we can call the answer to that question art too.
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