Banksy - Banging your head against a brick wall [2001]

8/3/2019 Banksy - Banging your head against a brick wall [2001]

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THE QUIC I(E!>T WAY TO THETOP OF Y O U I ~ BUSINESS

IS TO T U I ~N IT UPSIDE DOWN

Published by [email protected] Banksy 2001

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be usee!for commercial purposes.

ISBN 0-9541704-0-7 Southbank, London 2001
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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You could say thatgraffiti is ugly, selfishand that it's just theaction of people whowantsome pathetic kind offame. But if that's trueit's only because graffitiwriters are just likeelse in this

country.Someonerecently asked meif I thought most graffitiwriters were reallyfrustrated artistsmyself. Il'Jell I'm frus-trated by many things but

to by

isdespi te having to

scuttle around atlike Jack the Ripper

marker pen, wri.t i.nqis about the most

anno

to do it, you don'tan education to understand

admissionmoreuseful places to havepictures than in museums.

Some people thinkshould have betterto think about thanto think about betterthings. But the instinctis still there. Life isunfair and the world isfull of cripples I deathand deviousness.In response to this,painting pictures seems apointless way to spend

time. Yourdoes morethan some gi tabstract art or

leastof meaning a

more to people. Graffitihas been used to start

stop wars andthe voice ofis one of the

few tools you have if youhave almost nothing. Andeven if you don't comeupwi. th a picture to cureworld poverty youcan makesomeone smile whilethey re having a piss.Graffiti ultimately winsout over propel' artbecause it becomes part of

city, it's a tool;meet you in that

know, the onethat wall with aof a monkeyhold-

a chainsaw". I mean,howmuchmoreuseful can apainting be than that?


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u11ing the p1ug on city ha11ounci1 HouseI Bristo1 2001


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paranoid is annn,"m;HT nCri I hazard of

streetwhich is good. Youris working at its bestwhen you're being para-noid. You explore everyavenue and possibility

not interestedat things madewho aren't

they're notto their full


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,I

II

We can't do anything to change the world untilcapitalism crumbles. In the meanti.ne we should all goshopping to console ourselves.


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One solitary man in thecrowd, Nica Leon, sick todeath with Ceausescu andthe dreadful circumstan-ces he created for every-one started shouting infavour of the revolution-aries in Timisoara. Thecrowd around him, obedientto the last, thought thatwhen he shouted out "Longlive 'I'Imi.soar'a! " it wassome new political slogan.

The corrupt and brutalr-eq trne of PresidentCeausescu of Romania wasinfamous the world over.His ferocious governmenthad run the countryemphatically for manyyears, crushing any signsof dissent ruthlessly. InNovember 1989 he was re-elected President foranother five years as hissupporters at Party Con-ference gave him fortystanding ovations.On December 21st thePresident, disturbed by asmall uprising In thewestern ci ty of Timisoarain support of a Protes-tant Clergyman, was per-suaded to address a pub-lic rally in Bticharest.

They started chanting ittoo. It was only when hecalled, "Down withCeause scu ! It that theyrealised something wasn'tquite right. Terrified,they tried to force them-selves away from him,dropping the banners theyhad been carrying. In thecrush the wooden batons onwhich the banners wereheld began to snap under-foot and women startedscreaming. The ensua.nqpanic sounded like booing.The unthinkable was happ-ening. Ceausescu stoodthere on his balcony,ludicrously frozen inuncertainty, his mouthopening and shutting. Eventhe official camera shookwith fr ight. Then the headof security walked swiftlyacross the balcony towardshim and whispered "they'regetting in". It wasclearly audible on theopen microphone and wasbroadcast over the wholecountry on live nationalradio.This was the start of therevolution. \lJithin a weekCeausescu was dead.

Source: John Simpson BBCNews.


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U N I L W HO BELIEVES IN CAPITAL PUNISHM ENTSHOULD BE SHOT

oldwas from

school. It was punish-ment for swinging one ofmy classmates round andround before droppinghim onto concretefloor. He was taken awayfrom school by anambulance that had topull right into theplayground and pick himup on a st ret.che r .The nextto stand

I was madeof the

whole school at assemblywhile the headmastergave a speech about goodand evil before I wassent home in disgrace.The unfortunate ofthis story as Inever actually touchedthe kid. It was my bestfriend Jimmy who had puthim into Me and

MartinJimmy grab the

kid's hand and swing himuntil he was too tostand up and when hego the kid seemed t.ofly off land on hishead. I t evenmalicious,

kid wasn't getting up Jimconvinced Martin tothat it was me whodone it. The only other

wi tness was the kidhimself who didn't regainconciousness for a we ek .I tried many times toexplain that I hadn'tdone it, but the boysstuck to

guts to admit when I waswrong and that it waseven more disgustingwhen I refused to acceptwhat I' d done.So I shut up after that.The kid sustained afractured skull and somemental problems. Hecouldn't remember how ithad happened and hedidn't return to schoolfor a long time.I think I waslearnthere's nojustice and there'snothing you can do aboutit. The more usefullesson I learnt was that

no point inyourself. You

bethere'sbehavingwillpunishedyou neverPeople get it wrongthe time.

who believes inpunishment should

be shot.


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I was at home drawing andlistening to Radio Onelate at night when the djbecame so annoying Igrabbed some paint anddrove to the studios onNewCavendish Street: l'djust stuck a stencil of arat playing on some 'turn-tables to the side of thebuilding when a riot vanpulled round the corner .I started walking off asthe van drove past andtook the next corner. Iturned back and, gotpaint out just assame van pulled up again,having just gone roundthe block. I straightenedup and walked to my caras the cops pulled upvery slowly and stopped20 yards up the road.1'm to checkpaperwork on passen-ger seat as the stencil,still taped to the build-ing, flaps in the breezeten feet away, with a

1'm sitting there forwhat feels like a verylong time trying to workout if the cops saw thestencil as a big salooncar pulls up behind meand out gets Zoe Ball andher driver. He opens herdoor and she goes intothe building.1'm still watching theriot van when I noticeZoe Ball's driver hascome over and picked upmy can of paint, In-specting it close 1y .turn on my engine as acop finally gets out ofthe van and walks over.I hear him say "Excuse meSir, can I have a look atthat? I in away. The driverlooks a bit perturbed. AsI'm pulling out he'slaughing nervously andturning out his pockets.

Win the rat raceand you're still a rat


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Alot oftheir ini ~~~e never useric-one told t h : ' to~cause


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ON 'T BEL IEVE THE TYPE../oing what you're told is

nerally overrated. Inct it's been said thatore crimes are conmi.ttedthe name of obedience

an disobedience. It' s~ho! follow a '~ythor-i.t.y- blindly who diee real danger.


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EXISTENCILlSlvl


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. _ . . . _

E A P O N S O F M A S S I)m TI~A C TIO Neople are fond of usingilitary terms to de-

scribe what they do. Wecall it bombing when wegoout painting, when ofcourse it's more likentertaining the troopsin a neutral zone, duringeacetime in a countrywithout an army.Why all the bombs?Because it's tothink about bombs thetime, because it's diffi-cul. t to get your headround the fact thathumans have the hardwareavailable to make theirentire species extinct.Nobody talks about itanymore but they say thisis why we've all become sointo money, because atthe back of our minds weall know that atomicbombs have taken ourfuture away from us.

A wall is a veryweapon. It' 5one ofnastiest things youhit someone with.

can

""""- i . "

~ 't


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\


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ONLY THE I~ ID IC L J U) LJ S S L JI~ V IV E. .~=============~~== m -=== :==~~ ~~ ~m m ~ ..

Vandalised oil paintings

Urine the moneyI urine the money Call TheAntiques RoadShow,it's a fucking classic

Someone famous once said: "Ittakes two people to make a pieceof art. One person to make theart; and another person toLhemfrom destroying it./Ii.s more poetic than saying: "ItLakes two people to make a pieceof art. One person to make theart and another person to comeround later from the council andaand-bl.ast. it off ,I


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P ICT l J l ~E TELLS A LIE

\"Only when the last tree has been cut down and the lastriver has dried up will manrealise that reciting redindian proverbs makesyou sound like a fucking muppet"


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ZE N A N D T H E A ln O F IvllN D L E S S V A N D A L IS M

Every time I hear the word culture I release the safety catch on my 9m m

W(' came out of a pub onenIqht; arguing about how",13y it would be to hold,Ill exhibition in Londonwi Lhout. asking for any-'1110 s permission. As weWolked through a tunnelIII shoredi tch someoneu.t.id: "You' re wastingYOIII; t ime, why would youWIIlt to inII clump1\ week later we came backIo the same tunnel with1wo buckets of and,I letter. The was,I forged invoice from aIII ickey mouse Arts org-.misat.Lon wishing us luckw i.th the 'Tunnel VisionruuraL project'. We hunglip some decorators signsIIieked off a building:lite and painted thew ..il.Ls white wearing over-

I lLs. T t i l e got the artworklip in twenty five minutes.urd held an opening party1..ter that week withI'eer s and some hip hop

out the back of avan.

~ ~ i x months later someone1\necked a hole in the wall.md built a superclub inI lie middle of the piece.I I Ihad a pound for everyI lme that happened.


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t1~I P A i w T' ~ . , A I N . . .";, I

, "

I'm walking home at 7amaft.er a night doing loadsof damage when I turnedthe corner ontoand seeparkedhouse on

I lookahead and keepbut just as I get togate I see the blue lightsstart flashing and t.hesiren goes off. I panic,

(110p the stencils andI urn to run. When I lookI)Ilc;k: I see theInCI;: of a mechanicI n o v.lhee~T flashing me aI)I9 .Jama.i can smile as heI 111~Ii.S the siren on and off

. I stand there asboss comes out of the

(1111"61geand tells him to1~ll()Ck. it off, but theI , I , I t.erd is still laughingnt ue .


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I LOV E THE SM ELL OF V ANIJAUSlv l EAI ~L " IN TH E IvIOl~NING

A beginnerspainting with

you think ofmore

you coud bedoing. Getgaffasmallat.t.ach

a small roll oftape and pre-tearstrips ready tostencil to the

knife the

wall . Shake and test can ofpaint before leave.Cheapfinesharperbetter stencil looks.As the Grim Reaper said to

his "You

fatter and it's toodifficult and boring tocut through. Any thinnerand it gets sloppy too

an unas surru.nqpiece of card as a folderto hold your stencil inand leave the house


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0 M B I v l l D D L E E N G L A N DL

People who get up early in themorning cause war, death and famine.


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ston super Mare "It's a little bit embarrasing to have been concernedwith the human problem all one's life and find at theend that one has no, more to offer than 'Try to be aLi.ttle kinder', It

Aldous Huxley


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Y( ) L JI~L E T T E I~SBanksyI first became aware ofyour work throughsleazenation and thatbusta rhymes cover. Iwould be grateful ifyou could tell me whereelse I can catch anyother pieces of yourwork in sho.red.i.t.chorthe rest of london.I have just startedwork as a ca.rattendant, shiftin swiss cottage. Thecar park is XXXXXXXXand is partially under-ground. There are a lotof crappy tags butthere is great scope todo something there. Iam only working therefor another six weeksso if you areinterested mail .me.

Lexbudda

Dear XXXXXXXWe received the artworkroughs from your clientBanksy today with somedisapointment. He doesnot appear to haveunderstood the projectbrief which we suppliedto and his ideas

somewha t short of

what we were antici-pating. As I haveexplained previouslynothing of an offensiveor overtly politicalnature sits comfortablywi th the XXXXXXX brandimage. Although we areaiming at a more 'edgy'feel in this campaignthe images he suppliedare entirely unsuit-able. I to saymyselffeel there is littlepoint in continuing toseek Banksy' s contri-bution to the rest ofthe campaign. Pleasenote that the agreeddesign fee, will not bereleased until all out-standing art vvo.rk relat-ing to this proj ect issubmi t ted to ouroffice. Best wishes forthe future xxxxxxxx

Yes Banksy,Just a quick note tosay thanks for all t.hepictures. I live inMontpelier and we havetwo of your pieces atthe end of our st ree t .Thought you might be

Mindless authorityfigures inoperation

interested to know wehad the police herelast week because aneighbour was burgledand I asked them whatthey think of yourstuff. One said hethought that stick manon the s ide of thepolice station vasfunny and they hopethey don't catch you.All the best

BanksyI read in Level maga-zine that you aretrying to etch grafi ttiinto limestone but wer-eunsure of how to do it.I did a little workwith steel plateetching, we would use alaquer to coat the backof the plates to stopthem dissolving. Thiscould then be removedwith meths.used was about 20 %nitric acid, but anyreasonably st rong acidshould do the trick,ie pickling vinegar ..

Ed, SchoolChemistry, Emails should be sent to: bGillbyaOlllllilHly.I'I"ttlBa~ging your head against F. I IJI~I (' I~ wil li , Vlli 1 IH 11111111111I111I I I 11111 II{)(I(I Il('()pIO of

Br'Lst.o. l . Additional lyrics by Milil1 'I'yllll, IrlV,lIll IIV,ill l' III' h111 1ilillirlqllllillY I)y Sl..cveLazarldes. Further copies avallOiJII\ II ()III /1 I1 11 ( 1 1 11 I 1 l ' I U il t . l 1 1 1l 1 11 1= i / , WWW,I),llllwY.I'O.llk

Bacon butty served here Ki11 Gary G1itterBut you a1ready muggedme once, back there ten

minutes ago


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Banksy - Banging your head against a brick wall [2001]

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