Pure genius

by liberal japonicus

Seems like we need some comic relief, and it is Banksy to the rescue!

That he titled the video on instagram as 'Going, going, gone!' only adds to my admiration.

Comments

[Nigel]

The art market appears unperturbed...
“This is now part of art history in its shredded state and we’d estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% to its value, possibly as high as being worth £2m plus.”

[russell]

"We have talked with the successful purchaser who was surprised by the story."

No doubt.

The world will be saved either by saints, or by pranksters. I call it a toss-up.

[Girl from the North Country]

I thought this was marvellous and witty too, but it's a shame that it stopped halfway down (although that makes for a better visual). I wonder whether that aspect was pre-planned (in which case of course it seems to contradict the apparent message, by making it more valuable as in Nigel's quote above), or whether something went wrong. Ah well, thank God for people who retain a playful spirit despite everything!

[Countme-a-Demon]

This SO appeals to my sensibilities.

The shredder could be the metaphor for our times, if we think about it for one second.

The White House is one big shredder, for example.

I might agree that it shouldn't have stopped half way down, but instead should have continued into a shredder waste container underneath, but on the other hand, stopping it half way let's the shredder hidden in the frame and the work of art remain one perpetually frozen piece of whimsy.

Saints are not what is needed right now. Relentlessly devilish Prankster Devils playing for keeps against the absolute Devils of our moment and world are required.

All day, every day Andy Kaufmanns and Banksy terrorizing with doubly devilish whimsy and taking the Devil's cash besides.

Here's another one I aspire to:

http://artdaily.com/news/13723/Banksy-Places-Fake-Rock-Art-at-British-Museum#.W7oZXHtKjb0

This may seem way too tangential, but thus is how my mind works. Since I invest in the stock market, among my weekly reading is Investor's Business Daily, solely for the stock charts; the editorial page comes with its own shredder ... me.

World Wide Enterprises WWE has been #1 on the IBD top 50 stock list for weeks running.

As a metaphor for America at this moment, perhaps even a work of art, the fake reality show/fake news/fake sports enterprise, all bullshit all the time, tremendously profitable bullshit, wherein the bulging-crotched sales performers and the rubes conspire together to be closed at the BOFU for the acquisition of total bullshit, AND one of the founders occupying a Cabinet level agency (the Small Bullshit Administration) under the company's #1 fan and exemplar, the company is an unwitting Banksy.

There has to be a prank to blow all of that up.

[Ugh]

It’s 4:30pm on an NFL Sunday and I go to the NfL’s Website on my phone to check scores and there are no scores, ATALL, on the home page. None. Great marketing

[wj]

Somehow I have this antiquated feeling that art, to be art, should be beautiful. And I just can't see how something like this qualifies. "Ugly" seems a more apt description than "beautiful."

[Hartmut]

I am also quite old-fashioned about art but imo beauty must be apt for the sujet or it becomes a lie.
Not that it has anything to do with the case at hand.

[Michael Cain]

A slightly art-related bleg... Over the years I've accumulated/written software that lets me do cartograms and prism maps (examples of each here and here). Elections, where cartograms are often popular, are almost upon us. Anyone have thoughts about maps that might be unusual but interesting?

[JanieM]

Michael Cain: Not related directly to the election, but it would be fun to see a map showing the disproportionate representation of citizens in the Senate, and also the disproportion in Congress as a whole that arises because of the Senate.

[liberal japonicus]

I didn't want to post this observation in the other thread, and I'll expand it if anyone wants, but the short version is that my nightmare is that Kavanaugh is something that is seen as impacting white women while women and communities of color will be turned off. I was looking for some analyses of the election and Clinton's vote shares and I'm totally confused as to what really happened, but one idea in that discussion was that Clinton was not able to inspire the same level of participation as Obama was, which was [part of] the problem.

Bearing that in mind, some interesting cartographs of the women's vote shown in a way that can illustrate that factor would be interesting.

[sapient]

I was looking for some analyses of the election and Clinton's vote shares and I'm totally confused as to what really happened, but one idea in that discussion was that Clinton was not able to inspire the same level of participation as Obama was, which was [part of] the problem.

I think we continue to underestimate the effect of Russian interference, voter suppression, etc. Despite evidence, we keep minimizing it. I would suggest we pay attention, because it's happening now, again.

Also, see this article regarding white people versus people of color and their view of Kavanaugh.

"Those results would reveal that 83 percent of black and 66 percent of Latinx voters believe Blasey Ford, compared to a mere 40 percent of white voters. And that 80 percent of black and 69 percent of Latinx voters considered her honest compared to just 54 percent of white voters."

[Girl from the North Country]

sapient, lj posted that very article on the Pyrrhic victory thread!

[sapient]

Oh, sorry! I knew I saw it somewhere.

[liberal japonicus]

Hi Sapient, I'm sure that you don't intend this, but you make it seem like I don't acknowledge the effects of the things you list. I do.

As GftNC notes, the Root article was one I linked to earlier. That dynamic, of reporting of white concern while ignoring women of color, is what leads me to wonder about that, and having some cartographs would help visualize that relationship would be interesting. Perhaps someone with a better memory than me can point to the election where everyone hailed how African Americans, especially women, turned out to defeat either a particularly obnoxious candidate or a really crappy ballot initiative and out of that, there was a scathing article, I think on the Root that pointed out how black voters are expected to turn out for elections, but then always find that their concerns are ignored afterwards.

Again, I'm not minimizing the effect of other aspects, and if you can think of some interesting cartographs that could represent the factors you mentioned, I would love to see them. Cartographs about impacts of various states efforts at voter suppression might be doable as well.

[JanieM]

Maybe this has been posted here too, but I've followed so many links lately that I can't remember where they all originated.

John Cole posted this a day or two ago: Black Voters Matter Fund. I sent them a contribution, right after sending my $20.20 to the Crowdpac for Susan Collins's next opponent. I was tempted to give more to the latter, but decided (on my finite budget) to wait until we see if she runs, and who actually runs against her, and anyhow, there are races to contribute to right now, and 2020 can wait. Maybe I'll win the lottery before then. ;-)