After talked with Ying-Jie and Jing-Ru, I was not sure about if my previous idea was strong enough to get people’s attention.
Then I think of Banksy.
It’s because I’ve seen an auction hosted by Sotheby’s, and I was quite surprised that an artwork by Banksy could sell over 10 million US dollars. Banksy has been named UK’s favorite artists of all time two years ago. And I think the reason behind people’s admiration for him is that there’s always something deeper purposeful and meaningful meaning behind his artworks. Also, street art is more approachable and quite easy to understand compared to other painting style.
Then I traced back that I’ve watched a documentary back in the days and it was about Banksy takeover New York city for a month in 2013. During that month, he would post a picture on his Instagram daily and people would go for searching and chasing where the artwork located. So I think it’s a very fresh immersive way to get people involve with something enthusiastically. It has the elements of adventurous, fun, educational and meaningful purpose all in one. It’s just like treasure hunting.
I’ve change my project a bit afterwards. It’s called ”Street Guerrilla/Street Friends”. In my opinion, for most of the pedestrians, homeless people are like guerrilla wearing camouflage on the street in this concrete jungle, the public tends to ignore the tragedies are happening on the streets. And I want to use street arts to remind the public to pay more attention on the vulnerable people. My ultimate goal or could say the impossible goal is to invite Banksy to have a guerrilla style of takeover London to create purposeful and meaningful artworks in the tube stations. The reason I want to have the artworks in the tube stations is because I believe he doesn’t want the artworks to be taken away and put on the auction. And I want the artworks to be there forever to remind the public through the cautionary artworks. I’m now trying to write a clear and fluent mail to his Pest Control office and to seek the opportunity to demonstrate my project for collaboration.
Reference:
Paskett, Zoe. (2019) ‘Banksy voted the UK’s favorite of all time in new poll’, Evening Standard,16 July. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/banksy-nations-favourite-artist-poll-a4190786.html (Accessed: 2 July 2021).
New York TV CZ/SK Fanclub (2017) New York / Banksy v New Yorku / EN (CZ titulky) (HD). 20 April. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsUFGovmcac&t=2228s (Accessed: 30 June 2021).
Sotheby’s (2021) LIVE from Sotheby’s New York /Monet, Warhol and Basquiat Lead Marquee Evening Sales. 12 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZceMlPw_2o&t=7430s (Accessed: 6 June 2021).