This past Friday we went to the Banksy Exhibit in Manhattan at the SE corner of W. 14th Street and 6th Ave (If you get the chance, you MUST go). Just typing the term Banksy Exhibit is a bit of a challenge for me. How do you breach the chasm between all that Banksy represents and a Manhattan exhibit? It was with this challenge I undertook the adventure.
Is Banksy one single person? Is it a group or cooperative? Is it an essence? I choose to view Banksy as a spiritual essence. This spiritual essence provides me a prospective to do my favorite thing – ask questions. AND the questions I am suggesting are not just personal (I have my own very personal perspective and bias), but are very much societal or even humanistic. Nationalism? Globalism? Consumerism? Do Gooderism (my made up term)? Geopoliticism? Privilidgism? AND so many other ISMs that Banksy questions! The title of the exhibit Banksy: Genius or Vandal? – the inclusion even provides a context for the questioning.
If you are in any way like me, born (1958) in the post WWII glory days of the US, a child in that “magical” decade of the 60s and coming of age in the oh so WEIRD 70s, YOU want to have these questions asked. You NEED to have these questions asked. I have a sense us Baby Boomers are going to be looked back on and discovered to have contributed SO MUCH to the history of the world. AND those contributions will swing WILDLY from numerous good or even great to OH SO MANY bad or even horrible.
Maybe that is always the way it is?
Can We? Will We? 