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INAPPROPRIATEPLANK

“Art, Life & Earth. THROUGH THE EYES OF A DEAF SNOWBOARDING MUSIC NUT.”

Category Archives: ART

August 3, 2011 ART: BANKSY, NO THANKSY.

Banksy? Meh! There are so many better street artists than Banksy. To me he’s just a graphic designer with an eye for marketing. Pseudo-intelligent Sixth-Form sloganeering if you ask me. I’m not ANTI Banksy, he’s an above average graff artist. But the amount of misappropriated depth applied to his work by those who know little more about the form than Banksy’s own work irks.

Artists like Futura, Blu D-Face, Osgemeos, Cisma, Kami, PixelPhil, Plug, Invader and countless more have been making the work Banksy’s is based on for years before he hit the big time. The only difference was that Banksy added a (clumsy) ironic political slant to their pieces and reapplied them as his own.

I’m not accusing him of plagiarism here. The form has always reused it’s components and developed them. Take DLux’s stencil piece (left), same shit, different city.  What I am saying is that if you remove the brutal 6th form politics student slogans from his work, it’s all been done before by people who did it for the love of, not the fame. More pertinently, check french artist Blek Le Rat‘s work below. These pieces are from 1983-84, WAY before Banksy even knew what photoshop was. He stenciled political pieces in Belfast in the height of the troubles. He invented everything Banksy (the nouveau version) is.

For socio-political satire in street art and I’d much rather view the work of Brek Le Rat or  manhattan’s Swoon (http://bit.ly/pcVOXk). For the form iteslf I’d always rather see Futura 2000 or Boris Tellegen (http://bit.ly/n8Nrj7). And for sheer creative lunacy, effort, craft and love I could watch Blu’s work all day. The Blu piece in the video above is INSANE. That shit transcends the form, takes it to whole new place, level and audience. And it uses derelict places, finding beauty in destruction.

Good luck Banksy. But people should realise there’s more to street art than a child with a bomb, rain under an umbrella, a caveman with fastfood or any other postcard juxtaposition he botches together in an oh so ironic way.

For the record, in 1998, some 15 years AFTER Brek Le Rat’s stenciling work began the below is what (Robin) Banksy was painting. Just below that is an interview he gave for Dirty Graphics & Strange Characters book the same year.

I actually spoke to Banksy several times during this period and have to say, he was a thoroughly nice, charming and very likable man. In fact, I gave him his first London showspace (via Daddy G) and had several of his canvases on show for some time in the SoHo area. They were of sharks swimming in shopping centres and other “urban” alienation themed pieces.

I’m far from hating on him. He’s brought the artform into a wider audience’s view. But the (clever) marketing used to so so has put him up as the leader of the pack where in my opinion he’s far from it.

Anyway, good luck to all street artists. Including Banksy. And thanks to @Scaloni for his input.

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June 1, 2011 ART: ILLUSTRATION FOR SKATE T-SHIRT


I used this illustration, penned on a boring Sunday evening, for a Bawbags design. It’s been used on the website and as a design for their boxer shorts. Possibly a Tshirt in future too.

I really should find the time to do more drawing.

May 10, 2011 ANTHONY GORMLEY: ‘6 TIMES’

ART. In 2010 Edinburgh became the latest city to feature works from public installation heavyweight Anthony Gormley. Famous for his Angel Of  The North piece near the M1, Gormley has been installing works in cities around the country for some time. His Edinburgh work, “6 Times”, is made up of six life size iron figures standing in various points in the city’s scenic river, the Water Of Leith.

“For me, it’s about using the Water of Leith as a living bloodstream. I’ve always been very affected by the river because it’s untouched….The idea is to use memory and the present experience of a body in space, in relation to your memory of one that you might have seen earlier – either a few minutes earlier or a few months earlier.” Antony Gormley (The Herald, 14 June 2010

Powderhall by day.

Powderhall by night

Unfortunately the last and most poignant piece of the set, which stares out to sea from the Leith Docks is so far from the nearest viewpoint it’s hard to truly appreciate it.

A most welcome addition to an already beautiful walk through the heart of Edinburgh. Obviously several have been dressed by locals, my favourite outfit being the pink bikini worn by the Stockbridge figure on it’s very first day. Interactive art.

May 10, 2011 BERTONE: RETRO-FUTURE

This was the future. A future imagined by italian motor design legends Gruppo Bertone way back in the late 60’s & early 70’s. The kind of future I thought I’d be  living by now.

Even as a child I knew that realistically the Hoverboard and Flying Car might take a while to arrive, but these cars already existed so I KNEW we’d be driving them by the space age year 2000. In fact, we’d probably be driving even BETTER cars by then. Like Tron vehicles. Or Speederbikes. But unless you’ve got a spare £2,000,000 or Nicolas Cage style GTA skills you’ll probably never even so much as see one of these mighty beasts. Ever.

These are concept cars. They didn’t make it to production. Instead the motor industry turned to generic, charmless, bland boxes and some of Bertone’s, and the world’s, finest designs were locked away for decades.

You can buy them now though, if you’re filthy stinking rich, as RM Auctions are selling them.


The white one, the 1974 Bravo, was designed for Lambourghini and in my opinion is one of the finest cars of the era. Absolutely stunning. It came SO close to being produced but a downturn in Lambourghini’s fortunes saw it put indefinitely on the backburner. Tragic.

I cant even drive!