Analysis of A Visual: Banksy Street Art

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In May 2011, popular street artist and political activist, Banksy, white washed a wall in Chinatown, Boston and left a message for the American people.  That message: wake up and see the world you live in and then take action to change that world.  Different from graffiti, street art takes art worthy of galleries and puts it in the street.  Street artists take a risk when illegally vandalizing public property to share their art with the world.  That risk, especially in the case of Banksy, adds to the value of this unique art form and aids in understanding the message that is being presented through it.  Through this piece of art, Banksy is confronting and questioning social constructs and American ideals and is asking his audience to live vicariously through his pieces and to question the world around them.

1. Street art is meant to be an inherently anonymous way to create and disseminate art.  Unless the artist has signed the piece, it can be assumed that the artist does not want people to know who created it.  Some street art is recognizable by style.  This piece, distinguished by the use of stencils to create the image, is attributed to Banksy, a London based street artist that has gained notoriety through his distinctive style and politically charged art.  Though Banksy has been credited for this particular piece of art, he did not sign it.  The ambiguous nature of ownership of art leaves the possibility for the art to be public art; or art not owned by anyone but rather created in a way that lets the public take ownership of the art.  The art is forced on the public, in a public space, with not claim of authorship. The artist is giving the work to the people that he is addressing, calling them to take ownership of and responsibility for the message being conveyed.  He wants his audience, everyone, to consider their dreams and their reality.  He confronts these ideals that America was founded on and requests the same of his audience.  This piece is not an idle piece; it is an active plead for people to understand the reality that it is presenting - we are no longer free to follow our dreams - and asking them to change that.  If the audience, us, takes ownership of the piece then we can remove that canceled sign and change our lives, our reality.

2. Bansky used a stencil to create a clear picture of a lower-middle class or low class grunt worker.  The man is clearly an older man.  His clothing hearkens back to the depression era.  Through this image Bansky is drawing parallels between the current economic crisis and the depression; he is pointing out the severity of current the political and economic environment.  The man from the depression era is the one that posted the cancel sign over the dreams.  Though he is only the messenger, the use of him to deliver the message is poignant because he does not appear to be living his dreams and now he is working to cancel others, perhaps just to survive.  He is not happy, rather he is resigned and doing what is expected of him, he doesn't seem be able to live out the American Dream.  Through the man, Banksy is representing us, the American public; we are not following our dreams because we can't follow our dreams.

3. "Follow Your Dreams" is a popular axiom calling people to action and alluding to the American Dream.  For one to be able to follow a dream, freedom is required.  Here the dream is being canceled.  Cancel is a seeming innocuous word; however, the terms used in connection to cancel and to define cancel are violent, forceful, and restrictive.  Abolish, delete, destroy, confine, erase, deface, obliterate, and invalid are connected to cancel as a verb and as a noun cancel can mean prison bars, limits, or bounds.  The forceful nature of the word limits dreams.  The idea of an American Dream no longer exists according to Banksy.  It has been forcefully abolished, erased, and destroyed and as such Americans are confined to a world in which they only believe themselves to be free.

4. Banksy white washes the wall and then uses gray scale in most of the piece.  The man in the painting is gray and the words follow your dreams are gray.  Against the white background these figures stand out but the use of gray mutes them.  In contrast, he uses a bright, vibrant red for the canceled sign, setting it in stark contrast to the gray "follow your dreams" and worker.  It is the only color that Bansky chooses to use.  Red is a strong color that implies power, violence, force, etc.  When used in connection with the violent undertones of cancel presents a very forceful message that dreams were not just canceled but taken away from Americans.

5. Street art is unique in that the artist can choose any location for their piece and that place is a public space.  This piece is on a wall, in an alley, in Chinatown, Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Chinatown is the last Chinatown in New England and efforts are being made to keep it alive, though they are only semi-successful. New England is the birthplace of America.  War was fought on that ground for the freedoms and ideals that America is founded on.  The American Dream grew from these ideals and immigrants flocked from around the world to participate in this dream.  Chinatowns or like communities, like the one in Boston, became gathering places for these immigrants where they can live with like minded people while they figured out how to live their version of the American Dream.  The choice to place this message in the last Chinatown in New England draws on the history of the place to add weight to the message being sent.  That world no longer exists according to this piece; the ideals that founded this nation have been canceled along with our dreams.  We are no longer free to choose the life that was built so long ago in the place this art was created.  The world has changed and in the process the ability to follow dreams was lost.