At Sotheby's, a top auction house in London in 2018, an artwork came up for sale that attracted huge interest since it was a rare example of a Banksy - the product of the elusive graffiti artist and prankster. It depicted arguably his most famous image of a girl and a heart-shaped balloon, reproduced across many merchandising opportunities, and certainly a popular piece from the most famous twenty-first century artist around. But as the framed print took £860,000 at the auction, the gavel came down and suddenly there was a beeping sound as the picture descended, shredded by a mechanism in the frame. There was brief panic until the patrons realised what had happened: Banksy had destroyed the art just as it was commanding a huge price...
Except, it was only half destroyed, and as it now hangs half in and half out of the frame, it has become a new artwork in itself rather than a pile of paper strips. It was ironic that while the artist was trying to send up the artworld, he managed to contribute to it in the process, making a small fortune for those he professed at least a strong degree of scepticism about, all because, as he admitted in an online video "It worked in rehearsal", but not on the big day. This intriguing element to his story, that not all of it was dictated by someone who liked to exert a lot of control over his work, was sadly rather neglected by this French-made documentary (mostly told in English) which took the line that Banksy did everything for a reason and knew what he was doing at all times.
This illusion of control would have been a fruitful avenue to tread, especially in light of his main medium of graffiti which after all is illegal and by its nature impermanent thanks to those who would paint it over, scrub it off or paper over it. Yet because it was Banksy, his material was given preferential treatment to the extent that an example on a Welsh housing estate would be cut free of its block and transported to somewhere considerably less impoverished to be rhapsodised over by a bunch of rich folks who would never consider offering the area it was put up in an injection of the kind of cash they were paying for their own, authentic Banksy. Again, this documentary touched on that matter without exploring what could have been a provocative subject to hang their examination on, leaving it open to accusations of superficiality.
What it was most interested in, aside from recording as many pictures of Banksy's numerous artworks as they possibly could, was the identity of the man, which debatably was the least interesting thing about him. Here they bring up three candidates, all of whom have some claim to possibly being the mystery talent, all proposed by journalists who have convinced themselves they are correct when all they were doing was feeding into the whole enigma and mythos in a manner that did not matter. Judge a man by his works and deeds, would be a relevant point to make, rather than what name he has, and while his background would be able to tell you something about him, his obvious political engagement was more valid than anything that was connected to his origins, which after all were probably largely unremarkable. He wasn't saying anything that many a media-savvy critic of society wouldn't, he just applied his observations with a sense of humour that made them accessible. All told, Banksy Most Wanted was a neat compendium of bits and bobs, but barely scratched the surface of the implications.
[AVAILABLE DIGITALLY IN THE UK AND IRELAND ON MARCH 22 2021.]
