#some palestinians like banksy and many don't SHRUG EMOJI

[brehaaorgana]

Also just to be clear, because again, I wrote this ten years ago — there were a lot of Palestinians criticizing Banksy's work from back in 2005 in the west bank.

The one I remembered and that stuck with me was:

Banksy’s conversation with an old Palestinian man emphasizes this bizarre interlacing between aesthetics and protest.

When the man said Banksy made the wall beautiful, he initially thanked him. However, the [Palestinian] man responded,

“We don’t want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home."

The Harvard crimson

To my knowledge he last painted in Gaza back in 2015, which again, was almost a decade ago so I'm not sure which instance of painting in Gaza and then appearing across the world this person is referring to. It's been a long time.

He also typically stands to profit from the conflict (bizarrely, even as he protests it) because of The Walled Off Hotel. (It's currently closed.) Because he owns a hotel in Bethlehem where all the rooms have a view of the wall for tourists! It's full of his art and is also a museum! You have to give a $1,000 security deposit that only gets refunded after your stay.

The website literally includes this in the FAQ's:

Are you just making a profit from other people's misery?

The hotel is now an independent local business. The aim is to break even and put any profits back into local projects.

THAT DIDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION???

And it's worth debating! It's a valuable question! The concept is rife for discourse.

But here's the more important questions that are part of my point:

1. How many Palestinian street artists can an average person name? How many Palestinian artists are overlooked in favor of Banksy, who, if nothing else, claims a British identity (whether or not he's actually an artist's collective)?

2. How many people have both seen this art and known anything about its context? Did this actually raise any awareness?

as an art historian, may i just say: fuck banksy. 

instead of banksy, the white guy who has been funded and coddled by the elite as the darling of the circle-jerking art white male art world, TRY:

Women on Walls - AKA  Sit El 7eta (in Arabic), which is about women in Egypt who are street artists 

Malina Suliman, Afghanistan — Kabul Art Project

Shamsia Hassani, Afghanistan — Kabul Art Project

Jean-Michel Basquiat — Black American Artist 

Women Street artists painting in Lima, Peru for International Women’s Day

Lee Quinones - forefather of American street art and Puerto Rican/Latino American

LADY PINK - Latina/Ecuadoran American, you’ll know her by the “abuse of power comes as no surprise” shirt. 

Mata Ruda - also Latino

El Dercetor - Peruvian Muralist/Street Artist

Tati Suarez - Latina Woman

Bastardilla - a woman from Colombia 

Fatcap is a street art website resource — I linked to Cape Town, but you can search geographically 

Global Street Art

Ralph Ziman just made the world’s largest wheat paste art in South Africa

10 women artists better than banksy��check out Lady Aiko!

HAVE YOU HEARD OF SWOON?

African-American and Iranian artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh of “STOP TELLING WOMEN TO SMILE” fame 

 Nardstar* from South Africa

Zhang Dali - China

literally ANYONE BUT BANKSY

FUCK BANKSY