Do you find it offensive???? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Banksy wanted Clacton-on-Sea to confront racism – instead it confronted him Tendring district council has destroyed a painting that eloquently challenged views on immigration – was it too close to home? theguardian/commentisfree/2014/oct/02/bansky-clacton-on-sea-racism-tendring-district-council-destroyed-immigration If this Banksy picture scared anyone it must be because the pigeons’ views are just too close to real opinions in the air – the satire is so accurate that it can be mistaken for reality. Photograph: Universal News And Sport (Europe) It must say something about the swirling currents of prejudice, fear and anger in modern Britain that even Banksy cannot predict their next bizarre lurch. From Bristol to New York, this street artist has made his reputation by wittily mocking power and money. In Manhattan he satirised McDonald’s (not, perhaps his most original target) and in Cheltenham, near GCHQ, he painted spies snooping on a phone box. Usually people love him for it. The political content of Banksy’s art is generally so accepted and enjoyed that it has become tame. Far from being challenged, people gush at the prices it fetches. It comes as a genuine shock, then, that a council has removed one of his paintings instead of calling in the valuers. Tendring district council says it destroyed the new painting that materialised in Clacton-on-Sea – where Tory defector Douglas Carswell is about to fight a byelection for his new party Ukip – after getting a complaint that it was “offensive and racist”. Was it?
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 13:18:10 +0000
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