Is Banksy a sell out???

The unidentified guerrilla artist has struck again, but this time in an abandoned tunnel --once used only by taxis to get to waterloo station.

 

The artist created an exhibition throughout the tunnel with his infamous stencils that make a point about how messed up out society is.

 

The exhibition took place over the bank holiday weekend for a period of only three days, which saw about 28,000 people visit with approximately 600 adding their own work in the designated areas.

 

The exhibition saw he entire insides of the tunnel being coated with spray paints, stencils and grafitti murals, by artist from all corners of the globe including James Dodd from Australia, Bsas Stencil from Argentina, Artiste- Ouvrier from France, Faile from the USA and Dot Masters from the UK.

 

This area was said to have been chosen by the artists due to its colourful history which has been associated with theatre art and street drinking, which is excluded from most of the city.

 

Banksy so who once quoted as saying: “Win the rat race and you will still be a rat.”Has been seen as a sell out since his huge popularity has seen people paying around £200 thousand for his pieces with his celebrity collectors including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt an many other A listers. But just because he is now somebody making a lot of money from is work does it still mean he is a sell out?

 “He always talks about making capitalism crumble and the poor being pushed out of the cities because of rent and yuppies. His work graces their walls and they move to areas where his work can be seen, like in Shoreditch and Hackney. I think he is a sell out. I’ sure he’s living that yuppy lifestyle now.” Said James, one of the visitors to the exhibition.

 One of the pieces at the exhibition was a stencil on the floor that said: “I have fought for wage increases. I have a plasma screen tv a big fridge and a new car. My life is bullshit.”

 “Well, I do not think Banksy is a sell out. Like most artists he is trying to put his message across and it isn’t his fault if people that don’t understand his work purchase it.” Said Gina, another exhibition visitor putting up her own stencils.

It seems as though the debate as to whether or not Banksy is a sell out or just misunderstood by many due to his recent entry into the mainstream art will always be surrounding his name. But regardless of that, it is certainly evident that he has a large amount of people supporting his work after the huge turn out of this exhibition.