the world is my canvas

Banksy is an English graffiti artist. No one knows his real name, no one knows what he looks like, but everyone in England knows his pseudonym and can recognize his crazy art. He is officially inspiring some of my 008 activities. Those Christmas monsters...just a first step.

Check out some of his work:


At the London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in seven foot high letters. At the Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure.

In August 2006, when Paris Hilton's debut CD came out, Banksy replaced 500 copies in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse. Music tracks were given titles like "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?". Some cover art feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption "90% of success is just showing up".

This is his graffiti on the West Bank separation wall.

In September of 2006, he dressed up an inflatable doll in the style of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, then placed it in the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at Disneyland.

Banksy also repaints different masterpieces with his own additions, then goes to museums like the Met in NY and just hangs them up (then times how long it takes for them to get removed).


Fact: the longest recorded piece of graffiti was painted by a student in the toilets of his college at Changsha, China in 1915. It consisted of over 4000 characters criticising his teachers and the state of Chinese society. After completing this masterpiece the student handed himself in and was paraded in front of the school and threatened with expulsion. The student was a 22-year old Chairman Mao. A graffiti artist was later founded the People's Republic of China and was responsible for the deaths of over 30 million people. Are there parallels here to Hitler's failed art career as well?

I love Banksy.
www.banksy.co.uk