Mood:
lyricalTopic: culture
Picture: echoes of a 2nd Banksy in Enmore now lost to a giant tagger and replacement door panel?
We dropped in to the Auscrap folks in Enmore which is one of the last light industrial activities in that part of town. The macho cashier knows me from years of metal recycling now. $50 on the ABN thankyou very much. So I tell him about my previous article here featuring Banksy at Alfalfa House organic food co-op. How it could be worth alot of money too, 'not that I care about that' feigning disinterest.
Now this guy is no art critic and was quite apathetic, didn't really know of Banksy from a bar of soap. But he thinks he remembers him ...(!)
"He did one here too, about a year ago, came in and asked permission. But I think someone went over it. Out the gate and not the first roller door but the second one ... tall guy with long hair." Quite neutral attitude as my excitement and sense of melodrama begins to rise.
Okay, I say let's check it out. There is a suspicious trace of a lower half of "Banksy!!" signature obscured by a giant local tagger. "Yeah that's it" says the cashier. Would Banksy write "Keep it fresh" or was it the later tagger?
Who knows. It might or might not have been the dude. It might have been a pretend Banksy sign off?
But then you get to wonder from another stencil location that he's been around - look at this image on his official website,
and then this smiley face photographed in Enmore two days ago right down to the side creases on the mouth and vertical ovoid eyes, and the cynical "who watches the watchmen". Who knows. Imitation is sincere flattery. Even the power plug is suggestive he's been lurking amongst us. Then again it could be the local fans from the School of Performing Arts in Newtown:
Here is the full panel of the roller door back of Auscrap which looks a real mess now:
"From the dark continent"? "One love" "peace out". Even the overflow up to the top left onto the brick work is a little suggestive.
Counting against this interpretation may well be the signatures of Banksey on the official website are block stencil style, not cursive but they do have the exclamation (one not two).
What makes us more convinced is he seems to like alternative business like the organic shop, and the metal recyclers, that is, a modern environmental theme. It's a cute mystery anyway.
