Banksy And Graffiti Art Symbolism

Art is a visual statement often labelled as a narrative. A narrative is how all of us see the world and how we connect with each other and therefore art is a natural fit for narrative. Much of art tells a story or convey a message and the story is up for interpretations with the unique use of symbolism. Both Banksy and Jill Orr are created in the postmodern framework with the unconventional messages and use of materials, symbolism and signs. Graffiti artist Banksy and performance, photography and video artist Jill Orr each portrays and demonstrate different focuses in unique and distinct creative practices. Banksy can be classified as a postmodern graffiti artist from the early 1990’s with a distinct style in the street art genre. He is …show more content…
Graffiti artists are often about revolution and rebellion, making visual statements about political, social and economic concerns. Banksy’s symbolism requires a little decoding although themes such as anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, and existentialism are symbolised throughout his work. For example, Crayola Shooter created in 2011, in Los Angeles was created to comment against child soldiers (Appendix 1). The stencilled character is a black and white young boy surrounded by flowers and birds with a gun, firing off colourful ammunition in the form of crayons. The message portrays Banksy’s loss of childhood in a world filled with war. His work highlights the components of human identity and behaviours such as greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair and absurdity. Banksy’s rejection of law is evident in his depiction of policemen placing them compromising or degrading positions. Promoting chaos and disorder through direct statements or symbols, he often creates figures of authority in situations demolishing their power, such as lying or breaking the law. Some of Banksy’s artworks degrade religious values, through the rejection of angles, diminishing their traditional role as a guardian, implying hypocrisy often worshiping symbols of violence. Banksy is skilful in creating palatable messages from broad and …show more content…
Her artwork trademark is the incorporation of performance, paintings, video, photography and paintings that express beauty, power and depth. She creates within a structural frame and explores the body and its position in different contexts. Jill Orr works collaboratively with a photographer, while she simultaneously acts, directs and produce narratives that she constructs while relying on the inclusion of her own body. She believes that photographs and performance art are essentially the same with the intent to capture an event as directed by the artist without audiences. Jill Orr claims that although video and performance can be seen as separate mediums, the relationship between them is the chemical, digital and electronic recording of an event in time and place. The use of phosphorescent painted screens allows her to create dramatic performances with shadows that remains on the screen for a short period. As sole performer, she slips between roles, transforming into characters from human to animal, and butcher to surgeon. True to postmodern artists, Jill Orr borrowed the painting “A bush burial” by Frederick McCubbin to create her own “The Bush Burial”. Orr created ghosting, a mark originally made by die artist that becomes visible as a transparent underlay. While other artists focus only on the conceptual nature of the action, Jill sets herself