ARTS228 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Killer Whale, Samo, Situationist International
Katherine Paterson
ARTS228 Art Theory & Art History 3
Week 7 - Graffiti, Street, Political Art
-Not strictly in the 1990s bracket
-Where Graffiti came out of historically
-Street art/public graffiti influences > Duchamp, Dada, Situationists (60s), Performance
Art, Conceptual Art, Punk (70s)
-Point of it > political statement, something surprising or unusual (linked to Dada or
surrealism), bring attention to social trends, transform public space (alt, interesting,
delightful, cohesive)
-Tejn "Lock on art" 2012
-Resistance > to political or racial or social oppression // to values and traditions that
reinforce the status quo > e.g. Berlin Wall 1961-1989.... messages, tagging, images
-Jean Michael Basquiat and Al Diaz as "SAMO" (Same old same old resistance)
1977-1880 > Fashion Moda late 70s South Bronx NY, freedom to explore what is is
art, not making art for the art market and influenced by academic training, closely tied
to emergence of Hip Hop > people that didnt want to be in gangs forming productive
youth movement
•Tagging "SAMO DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER IN LABRATORY ANIMALS" or
"SAMO FOR THE SO CALLED AVANT-GARDE"
-Banksy 2000s onwards > relatable poignant images and political messages and social
issues > e.g. Napalm girl with Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald, "capitalism" with
the man holding a gun to the head, "Better Out Than In" Oct 2013 (part of 1 work each
day throughout the month)
-Dismaland 2015 > Banksy's theme park up for a month mocking Disneyland in UK
near Bristol > $3 tickets to see it > starting to seem a bit like the New British Art and
the marketing around his invisible identity or does the political messages that distract
from the marketing ploy
-Banksy Killer Whale 2015 > Sea World and Orcas political message about animal
cruelty and small spaces, mocking the small spaces by having it jump out of a toilet
bowl.
-Banksy "Peter Kennard and Cat Phillips - David Cameron - one percent" 2015 > prime
minister of the UK from 2010-16 and the leader of the Conservative party from
2005-16 > clean out the political rubbish off the billboard
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