Banksy it ain’t!
Image Details: ‘Knitta-Please-Bike’ by dandeluca, via Flickr.
Banksy does grafitti. He’s done a reasonably good job of making a career out of it too, over the past 20 years or thereabouts. Banksy’s stencils feature striking and humorous images, occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. Labelled as ‘vandalism’by Keep Britain Tidy, grafitti artistry seems to split people right down the middle. Personally, I quite like Banksy’s stuff and I struggle to see how a dead cow and calf chopped in half and pickled in formaldehyde can be considered art (it’s just minging unless you’re a vet or something) yet the Tate seems to think it is, so who am I to argue?!
Anyway, I don’t do grafitti. I’ve spray painted a few pots for the garden and tarted up the odd mirror frame or bit of furniture, but I’d never be good enough to do an actual picture with it. Knitting, on the other hand, could be a goer, which brings me nicely round to the subject of International Yarn Bombing Day, which, coincidentally, is today!