Two Artists Claim Responsibility For ‘Fake Banksy’ Graffiti
In the ongoing saga that is the pseudonymous Banksy’ two artists have claimed responsibility for the graffiti that has stirred public controversy over the past few days. Since being discovered feet away from the entrance to the city’s Gallery of Modern Art, the media has been a buzz with the finding of a Banksy work.
While done in the Banksy-style, debated ensued whether the ‘drumming rat’ was an authentic artwork or merely a copycat. Topped with a Union Jack hat, playing a drum, with the phrase “God Save the King” sprayed across it, the graffiti brought the public to the wall of the Springfield Court. Yesterday, the speculation ended when Conzo Throb and Ciaran Globel, two Glasgow-based artists, admitted that the art piece was their doing.
With much fanfare following the recent announcement of Banksy’s new solo exhibition, ‘Cut & Run,’ (his first one in 14 years) in Glasgow, the two artists used the ‘good opportunity” to drum up (no pun intended) publicity.
On their instagram, Globel explained how they pulled off the stunt. As he captioned it, “last week @conzothrob and I created a “fake Banksy” and it went viral.”
First, the duo researched Banksy’s works, following the same process as the artist when designing the graffiti “to make it look genuine”. After testing out the stencil a few times they went to the court to do it for real. After spraying the image onto the wall, Globel posed as a journalist. After notifying the building owner of the ‘Banksy,’ the duo spammed the internet with photos of the piece. Within a few hours the images went viral. Globel said: “This was to be expected, and meant our experiment was almost complete.” By the next day the Banksy team both confirmed to the media that the work was inauthentic and had the graffiti painted over.
Globel explained the purpose of their experiment: “It highlighted the hypocrisy within street art and graffiti, where some artworks are praised and others are removed completely, often without any consideration to their artistic value… Glasgow spends the most on graffiti removal compared to any other city in the UK and while some of that cost may be warranted, it highlights a need for policy change around the issue.”
While the artists are mostly involved in commercial artwork, with the timing with the ‘Cut & Run’ exhibition, they recognized the opportunity to put their idea into practice.
Globel finished the video discussing his take on the past week:
“It’s hard to judge the overall reaction, but from what I’ve seen it has been generally positive, people have understood the message of it.”
“We were asking what would Banksy do, and what Banksy would think with the artwork, and not trying to stir up sectarianism.”
“If Glasgow City Council were to open more legal spots for street art, I think that they would see the quality of the work skyrocket. Some of the removal of graffiti is warranted, you can tell the difference between something welcoming and something threatening, but its going to happen regardless so if there was a place to do it legally and safely it would make a difference.”
Featured Image By: Photograph taken of the fake Banksy graffiti. Credit: Alamy Live News