Brit Fodorfriends - Need lots of help with this - Banksy's graffiti must be well known? Is it worth a trip to grimy Hackney to see it before cleansing? Any background?

Readers' poll Hackney Council announced last week that it's cleaning Banksy's graffitti off its walls. So this week we want to know:
should it be left?

A) No, it's an eyesore
B) Yes, it's urban artwork
C) It should be flogged to pay for Hackney tube station

I'd be inclined to say B as i'm a big fan of urban artwork - unsanctioned art as long as it has some merit - not just sloppy tags, etc.

Banksy's stuff is well known and I think it's funny. However local authorities absolutely loathe it as they see it as legitimising all other forms of graffitti.

where may one go to see some of the 'best' of Banksy's stuff?

Is it all in Hackney or thereabouts?

thanks AFKAAEF

You can see some of his stuff here:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

use the scroll bar at the bottom.

TAFKADW (if you've been around a LONG time)

The "kissing cops" have had an international audience:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/...189442,00.html

Banksy's great, and hysterically funny. I wish the moronic taggers around here would come up with something half clever instead of dashed-off scrawls.

Some Banksys are more valuable than the building they're on. His stuff sells for hundreds of thousands of pounds now, but the best work is on walls.

Have a look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/k3vin/9390862/ in Liverpool. Naturally, being Liverpool, someone's stolen part of it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pss/389180814/

Thanks for the link, Warner.

Amazing stuff.

So little to say...so much time"

What a statement!

Is this true? Are they really going to clean it off? I can't believe they would do such a thing!

Banksy is famous and his graffiti is very well known. It would be an act of Philistinism to clean it all off. Are they mad?

fnar + TPFKAAEF/DW/NKACW thanks for the links

Seems (fnar!) Banksy is accomplished street artist and artist in general and the picture that pops up on TPFKAAEF/DW/NKACW's link is great - can't believe they would remove it - too bad the tags kind of ruin the scene and that perhaps is why it's considered rubbish now

Like East Side Gallery in Berlin - mile or so stretch of old wall that shortly after reunification was gaily painted by many international artists with poignant murals but now sadly trashed by graffiti - not graffiti artists byt stupid taggers

Anyway Banksy seems like a breathe of fresh air and will track down some on his alfresco works.

thanks all

Too true about the East Side Gallery, sadly, PalQ.

BTW I seem to remember recently reading about a 'trail' of Banksy's work on and near the South Bank, but can't remember where I read it - in a paper, maybe ?

Apres_Londee : this is the same Hackney Council that demolished Rachel Whiteread's 'House', for which she won the Turner Prize (and the K Foundation prize) that year.

This cheered me up:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/4563751.stm

Nay, Caroline, that was Tower Hamlets.

On the other hand, I don't think Banksy's that concerned. I suspect that if he were, he could nowadays afford to pay for the relevant patch of wall to be dismantled and put somewhere else. But he's famously quoted as saying in a gallery catalogue of his work for sale "I can't believe you morons are still paying so much for this sh*t".

Of course, a savvy local authority would put some sort of frame on it (perhaps with glass that can be turned from opaque to transparent - such a thing does exist, I'm sure -by a coin-in-the-slot mechanism).

Oh yes, Patrick, of course, sorry. (All east London innit )

I meant to post this a while ago...

For anyone interested in seeing Banksys while in London, here is an online Google map of where his graffiti is located. You can zoom in to get the street names and pinpoint the locations. I'm not sure how often the map is updated with new locations and/or graffiti that has been cleaned away, though.

Banksy Locations:

http://tinyurl.com/2pqmek

For anyone unfamiliar with what Banksy does, here is the link to his website:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

I'm a huge fan myself, and encourage anyone with an interest in English, modern, or political culture to check him out.