Reuters did a report on the identity of Banksy.
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@tsrono hmm, I’m not a big fan but I’m kinda put off by Reuters stated motivations for doing this… with all the actual harmful scandals in the world they make a pretty weak case for the need for “transparency” on him, it just feels like a flex of surveillance power (with possible economic jealousy?)
I mean if it turned out he was Peter Thiel or Epstein then sure publish it, but this is just doxxing some random guy
still I’m glad it’s left unresolved if it’s even just one guy or not, in the end
@tsrono also, agree w/ your assessment in general, any underground “gateway artist” like banksy, afx, etc, might end up leading fans down new rabbit holes, but at the same time their position reinforces ideas about scarcity and genius in the same way as top 40s. it’s a mixed bag with responsibility that most of them prob don’t want.
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@tsrono I have a random Banksy related story. There was a Banksy piece called The Drinker, a riff on Ronin's Thinker, and it was left out in front of a square in London, then later stolen - https://news.artnet.com/market/sothebys-pulls-banksy-auction-1708266 - the piece turned up in my neighbors backyard in Hackney, London, I could see it through the fence, and posted a pic of it on Flickr (it was 2006!). I had no idea what it was at the time, but there were quite a lot of comments wanting to know where it was. I decided not to reply to any of them, and a few weeks later received a mysterious package of tshirts in the mail with a note saying thanks for not telling. Reading that piece I linked, i suspect it was have been AK47 's backyard
@sideb0ard oh that is pretty interesting actually! cool little side story for sure. what were the tshirts?
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@tsrono hmm, I’m not a big fan but I’m kinda put off by Reuters stated motivations for doing this… with all the actual harmful scandals in the world they make a pretty weak case for the need for “transparency” on him, it just feels like a flex of surveillance power (with possible economic jealousy?)
I mean if it turned out he was Peter Thiel or Epstein then sure publish it, but this is just doxxing some random guy
still I’m glad it’s left unresolved if it’s even just one guy or not, in the end
@trashpandaqc i get you, i'm no stan for the Banksy stuff but it's got its place...idk if this is some random guy exactly, i get their case that he's (and/or others operating w/) regularly publicly display commentary on political situations & there should be scrutiny there of some sort - however, i don't see what outing his name/crew (much of which was already known anyway) 'definitively' does much if anything to that end.
to me the $$$ warrants scrutiny more than anything.
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@tsrono also, agree w/ your assessment in general, any underground “gateway artist” like banksy, afx, etc, might end up leading fans down new rabbit holes, but at the same time their position reinforces ideas about scarcity and genius in the same way as top 40s. it’s a mixed bag with responsibility that most of them prob don’t want.
@trashpandaqc yeah, it's an impossible path when in the public eye as part of a persona/genius-baiting/myth-building even if it's subversive & undercutting the idea at almost every step...no 'good' way to do that, only measure is does it work or not (in this case it did - same w/ Aphex, etc. like you mention)
well they 100% want aspects of that for the art, that's part of the point of it - do they want that for themselves personally? usually not but it's seemingly inseparable.
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@trashpandaqc i get you, i'm no stan for the Banksy stuff but it's got its place...idk if this is some random guy exactly, i get their case that he's (and/or others operating w/) regularly publicly display commentary on political situations & there should be scrutiny there of some sort - however, i don't see what outing his name/crew (much of which was already known anyway) 'definitively' does much if anything to that end.
to me the $$$ warrants scrutiny more than anything.
@tsrono yeah, rereading the money part, I’d def be curious if it turned out Banksy was a nefarious scheme or psyop. but it mostly sounds like “charitable graf artist turns out to be charitable graf artist, pisses off a few collectors by not selling everything”
to compare again to other… unmaskings… doesn’t seem like a structural revelation on the same level as “entire US culture war catalyzed by 4chan sex trafficker”
& of course fine art markets = $laundering, but they didn’t focus on that
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@tsrono yeah, rereading the money part, I’d def be curious if it turned out Banksy was a nefarious scheme or psyop. but it mostly sounds like “charitable graf artist turns out to be charitable graf artist, pisses off a few collectors by not selling everything”
to compare again to other… unmaskings… doesn’t seem like a structural revelation on the same level as “entire US culture war catalyzed by 4chan sex trafficker”
& of course fine art markets = $laundering, but they didn’t focus on that
@tsrono (and I’m only comparing this to epstein coverage bc I’ve seen most of that via social media, not sure if/how reuters, or mainstream news in general, is covering that)
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@trashpandaqc yeah, it's an impossible path when in the public eye as part of a persona/genius-baiting/myth-building even if it's subversive & undercutting the idea at almost every step...no 'good' way to do that, only measure is does it work or not (in this case it did - same w/ Aphex, etc. like you mention)
well they 100% want aspects of that for the art, that's part of the point of it - do they want that for themselves personally? usually not but it's seemingly inseparable.
@tsrono I think the good side for those high profile artists is when they use their position to uplift others. maybe to be fair that’s trickier for graffiti since uplifting smaller artists could get them arrested. I guess he could be hiring them and shopping out some of the work behind the scenes tho.
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@sideb0ard oh that is pretty interesting actually! cool little side story for sure. what were the tshirts?
@tsrono they were some kind of art shirts, they were decent, though I didn't quite remember, and it's only now reading that story, that they make me think it must have been the Art Kieda guy!
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@tsrono they were some kind of art shirts, they were decent, though I didn't quite remember, and it's only now reading that story, that they make me think it must have been the Art Kieda guy!
@sideb0ard oh interesting...that was 20 years ago tho yeah
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@tsrono (and I’m only comparing this to epstein coverage bc I’ve seen most of that via social media, not sure if/how reuters, or mainstream news in general, is covering that)
@trashpandaqc yeah there's always other layers to any story out there. a good storyteller/editor knows when & where to pare things back. it was already a significant bit of research, even if most wasn't 'new' information within.
i wouldn't think this sort of reporting is negating any reporting on more serious issues, but idk. maybe?
i've seen plenty of news items on Epstein & the wars & horrors & shit so um...yeah, trying not to focus on that. just though this was interesting.
