Closer

Visual Analysis | Banksy ‘I HATE MONDAYS’ Posted on July 4, 2012 by dmarciano ‘I Hate Mondays’ is a painting by Banksy the street artist. The painting has four African children in it in a bare and desolate place, which honestly looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. In the foreground there are two children, one that is right in the centre of the picture that is standing up holding a metal bucket in one hand and a stick in the other, he is wearing an old white t-shirt that has ‘I HATE MONDAYS’ on it. The shirt looks dirty and has holes in it he is slightly looking down, but his eyes are looking at us, the viewers. On the left hand side of him there is another child that is curled down with his arms wrapped around his knees, looking up at the child with the shirt, looking like he is about to indistinctly give him something. In the mid-ground on the right hand side of the child with the shirt there is another two children that appear to be working. One is standing up with a bucket on his head holding it with one hand, looking at the viewer, and then on the right of him there is another child bending over picking up something that we can’t see in the ground. The two children on the right hand side of the child with the t-shirt are balanced out with the one on the left hand side. The back ground is dark and gloomy, it looks deserted and there is nothing there besides what looks like mist. The facial expressions of all the boys who look like they’re aged between five to ten are sad and angry. I think that Banksy has used spray paint, with stencilled prints on top then worked them with paint. The sky is filled with cool colours and looks smooth and is contrasting to the ground. The colour in this painting he has used has made the painting look very dull, and creates a sad sort of mood. It looks like there are a lot of different textures on this painting like the ground, the children and the sky. The child that has the t-shirt on that says ‘I hate Mondays’ is emphasized because of that writing which is bright orange and yellow on a white dirty shirt. I would say that the child wearing that shirt is the focal point of this painting because its bright colours stand out from everything else, because he is in the centre and because he is so big. That is what you directly look at as soon as your eyes make contact with it. There is an immense amount of tone in the sky and on the ground and also on the figures, where any shadows are its black. I think that this painting is showing irony. I think this because there is a child that looks like he poor and is working for his family is wearing a dirty, old, ripped t-shirt that has in bright writing ‘I hate Mondays’. I think this because of many things. That t-shirt has more than likely been donated to him so hence I think that a much more wealthy person had owned it before him, this wealthy person would’ve worn this shirt with pride, trying to let the world know how much he hates Mondays and how living an affluent life is so ‘hard’. The child in the picture looks like he is saying to us ‘your life is so hard, having everything you want, try living mine’. I think that’s why Banksy has put that t-shirt on him. I like this painting a lot. It shows a lot of meaning, and is very spot-on. This painting makes me feel like I take too much for granted which I probably do but we live in a world where we don’t even notice and it’s normal for us to want more. I know that I always complain about Mondays, the night before I’m always dreading it, coming to school, learning for life. Trust me; it makes life so much complicated. But that isn’t the way, I don’t have to wake up Monday morning and just work, whether it is to feed my family, or find food for myself, I don’t work the moment I wake up till the moment I want to go to sleep, I get food given to me, if I don’t like it ill just chuck it in the bin. And I still complain. The main themes in Banksy’s work are, anti-War, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, nihilism, and existentialism. Banksy makes his work so noticeable and so different that you know that it is his, it is very confrontational. His work commonly critiques greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair, absurdity and alienation but he displays he work so we can put our own image and meaning towards it. Yellow Lines Flower Painter By Banksy -> Banksy Art Prints Posted: 19 September, 2012 Comments: Comments Off Yellow Lines Flower Painter Located in Bethnal Green in London, the Yellow Lines Flower Painter is one of Banksy’s most famous pieces. In this piece, the world-renowned graffiti artist shows a painter, presumably tasked to paint the yellow lines so common to the streets of London, taking a break after painting a large yellow flower on a wall. The Banksy usual brilliance is on full display here, both as an artist and as a thinker. The painter is drawn in full detail, from the shadows in his white cap to the folds in his overalls. Of course, the real genius is in the simplicity of the yellow painted flower itself. It makes the entire work of art so believable. Those who see it will see a flower painted by a street painter, and not a genius artist like Banksy. The piece carries a very whimsical message. It encourages those who see it to break out of the lines and to do something different. There is a place for order, yes, but it should not be used to stifle the human spirit. This Banksy wall sticker is called Kids on Guns, and first appeared in 2003. At first glance it appears pretty cute with two youngsters stood on a hill arm in arm, with a balloon and a teddy bear. But look a bit closer and you see the hill is actually a mound of guns. War and peace form the core of many of Banksy's artwork and this is no different, showing how children are exposed to violence today There are about 40 Banksy pieces in Londons Andipa Gallery. One of the more serious and moving of these is Kids On Guns Hill. The work is done on a 51cm x 51cm square canvas using spray paint. It is another work depicting his iconic balloon girl. The simplicity and severity of the color contrasts gives it both beauty and deeper meaning, making it one of the artists more somber pieces. It shows two children, a boy and a girl on top of a small hill with various guns and bombs littered about. The boy is holding a teddy bear on one arm while his other arm appears to be around the girls shoulders. The girl is holding a heart-shaped balloon on a string. The boy, the girl, the small hill, the teddy bear and the weapons are all done in solid black akin to a silhouette. This focuses the eye on the only bright spot of color in the canvas, the vivid red of the heart-shaped balloon. Boring Wall Berwick Street in London loudly proclaimed Banksys sentiment in his piece Boring.” Or did it' It is true that this particular piece of graffiti art appeared in Soho, but, like most of Banksys work, did it express his true feelings or his outlook on society' This work of art is anything but dull. The word itself is painted in red using large block letters. The paint drips from the bottom of the lettering as though it were too bored to adhere to the wall. A man wearing a suit and glasses is stenciled between the N” and the G”. He has his hand on his chin, as though he is pondering the deeper meaning of the word. This juxtaposition is the true genius of Banksys work. Passersby will never know if Banksy is stating that he is bored with graffiti or bored with graffiti that is reduced to a single word. Of course, Banksy could be amused with art aficionados who try to find meaning in the meaningless — assuming that the word itself is meaningless. Bubble Girl By Banksy -> Banksy Art Prints Posted: 21 September, 2012 Comments: Comments Off Bubble Girl This graffiti work Bubble Girl was originally located in Hackney, East London, England, with much of Banksys other works. It first appeared in February 2008 on a youth center. Banksy employs a very unique artistic approach with stenciling in order to transform typical city areas into street art that critiques and satirizes society. It is usually eye-catching but also has an element of dark humor. This work depicts a young girl blowing bubbles sliding down a drainpipe. The girl seems to be able to find enjoyment even though her playground seems to consist of industrial piping. She seems to be oblivious to her actual surroundings and possibly even the problems and difficulties presented in the environment around her. This seems to mirror society. Oftentimes society overlooks the real problems that are presented directly to us and society continues to blow our bubbles in a carefree manner. Instead of trying to make changes, like the girl finding a real playground to play in, society chooses to instead simply adapt to the problems around them, much like Banksy adapts to each location that he creates a work on. For this particular case he actually used a real drainpipe and incorporated it into his work. Fish for Freedom By Banksy -> Banksy Art Prints Posted: 23 September, 2012 Comments: Comments Off Fish for Freedom Banksy’s Fish for Freedom first appeared in London, England. The chalkboard-like scene of the art piece creates the sensation of childhood artwork. Surrounded by homely, typical furnishings, two orange fish are among the only colored features of the print. One fish seems to have jumped out of its fish bowl in an attempt to leap into the portrait depicted above the hearth in the center of the print. The artist chose to depict the tropical scene in the portrait in color too. In the portrait a tiny island with a single palm tree seems to beckon to the jumping fish, a suggestion of a yearning for freedom from captivity. Delving further into the initial impact of the piece, the casual viewer wonders why one fish chooses to jump while the other chooses to look in the other direction. The jumping fish puts his life fruitlessly in peril in his daring attempt to jump into the portrait. The portrait of a glum face resting on the mantle of the hearth suggests futility. The jumper is a fool to try to leap to free his bonds. The most poignant place to display this print would be above a hearth. This placement would complement the scene of the art piece very well. Even the casual art lover would appreciate this choice of presentation. The overall impact of the print is a yearning for one’s true home, which suits displaying the print in a homely manner. Barcode Leopard Tiger By Banksy -> Banksy Art Prints Posted: 25 September, 2012 Comments: Comments Off Barcode Leopard Tiger Whether one calls it graffiti or urban art, Banksy is becoming a big name in the world of alternative art prints. Graffiti art is becoming ever more popular in the art world for its unique artistic quality and different take on common every day objects and subject matter. For those with a love for big cats, a great art choice is Banksy’s Barcode Leopard Tiger. Not known to shy away from creativity, Banksy has created a monochrome print that depicts an escaped tiger outside of his cage. The cage has been transformed into a bar code symbol, with the bars themselves being the bar code print. Is this merely a cute way to display bars or is it a deeper symbolism calling for a discussion of illegal tiger trading on the world black market' Whether one chooses to take the print at face value or apply deeper meanings to the art work, it is an interesting piece. Bomb Hugger By Banksy -> Banksy Art Prints Posted: 25 September, 2012 Comments: Comments Off Bomb Hugger Banksy first created Bomb Hugger in 2003, which was published by Pictures on Walls in London as a limited edition of prints. A similar depiction was found on a wall in London’s East End. In a 2007 Sotheby’s auction the work gained publicity when it fetched 31,200. In this stenciled work a young, innocent girl with a ponytail and a short dress is hugging a large bomb of a type that is dropped by military airplanes. Banksy thus uses this ironic juxtaposition to emphasize the true nature of war, as opposed to the rhetoric from the media and politicians. The girl represents purity whereas the bomb, which symbolizes war, represents destruction and evil. Banksy thus challenges the press and politicians who portray warfare in a positive light, in suggesting it is the proper course of action to promote freedom, democracy and peace against forces of tyranny and human repression. Such contradictory rhetoric obscures the darker motives of war, such as greed, power and domination. Banksy also suggests that the forces of love and peace may overwhelm the forces of evil and hatred and ultimately triumph.