Create Escape
March 7, 2021 5:45 AM   Subscribe

Bob Ross hosts this video project showing Banksy installing his latest piece. [2m53s] Create Escape depicts Oscar Wilde escaping from Reading Prison, on the wall of Reading Prison.
posted by hippybear (25 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
I knew Bob Ross was Banksy.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:15 AM on March 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


That was really fun to watch. I haven't paid much attention to Banksy but I have a particular interest in Oscar Wilde and his time in prison, and I enjoyed this. I do like Banksy's style very much.

In his book What is the Grass?, about Walt Whitman, the poet Mark Doty talks about Wilde—his visit to Whitman, in particular, but also describes seeing an art exhibit that included the door of Wilde's cell. Doty is struck by how small it is, relative to Wilde's large six-foot frame.
posted by Orlop at 6:27 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ross's Peanart Banksy Cops
posted by chavenet at 7:16 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


Cool video, and a pretty good Banksy work as well. I'm kind of surprised he was able to do it and not be caught or seen, though. I mean, it's on the side a prison, and he obviously had to get up on a ladder to paint to the top of the wall.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:07 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


The prison is closed, so security is not as tight as all the razor wire would suggest.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 8:18 AM on March 7, 2021 [9 favorites]


That must have taken a certain degree of athleticism which makes me wonder (hope?) if Bansky might have a Dread Pirate Roberts situation going on...
posted by gwint at 9:33 AM on March 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


The audio was chosen with great care. What fun!

(I was excited to catch Banksy in the act once. Where "catch" means watching them from fifty meters away. Then I met someone who actually knows them, and they made it clear based on my description that I caught someone else who happened to be doing similar work on the same week Bansky was supposed to be in town. I'm pretty sure they'd have told me the truth. Or, maybe the Dread Pirate Roberts idea is true. That would be fun.)
posted by eotvos at 9:41 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


I had always imagined that Banksy was a collective of artists but admit I don't know that much about him(?).
posted by justkevin at 10:00 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


The piece has a wonderful three-dimensionality to it. He really nailed it with the subtle shadow beneath Wilde and the typewriter. Just jumps right off of the wall. And the logistical feat of painting that high on the wall is really impressive, too.

I hate that it'll probably be sandblasted away within a day or two. It's excellent social commentary and if governments were more capable of self-reflection and critique, it could serve as a permanent art installation, as a cautionary example against government-backed oppression of LGBTQ people.
posted by darkstar at 10:50 AM on March 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


I've always assumed Banksy is really a collective of sorts, and it's extremely well-funded. That said, they do excellent work and commentary.
posted by elwoodwiles at 11:09 AM on March 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


I hate that it'll probably be sandblasted away within a day or two.

Pretty sure the prison is just a historical landmark, now, so they may well keep it. I think a contingent of “real” graffiti people would tell you it doesn’t count if it’s not illicit and ephemeral, but Banksy is obviously well beyond that niche now.
posted by atoxyl at 11:19 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


My great-grandfather was the Sheriff of Reading (though PA, not Berkshire) around the time of Wilde's imprisonment, so I always think of him as having been in charge of Reading Gaol.
posted by MtDewd at 11:52 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


I would watch an anarchist vaporwave graffiti painting show, especially if hosted by Bob Ross.

It's amazing how little people will notice you if you are wearing all-black (or a color that matches the canvas) and using all-black equipment, at night, even on a not-so-dimly lit street, with not that much pedestrian traffic. People don't look UP that often. I imagine not so much otherworldly superpowers to access those hard-to-get-to places, but rather months of scouting, and ingenious ways to secure and use very reliable and tested climbing equipment—painted as well to camouflage.

Also helps if your name is Mister Brain Wash.
posted by not_on_display at 12:00 PM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


A Banksy work sells for anywhere between a few hundred thousand pounds to considerably over a million. They ain't gonna sandblast it any time soon and it was likely "installed" there as a way to ensure there was some added difficulty in tearing the wall down as part of any new development. This quote about it suggests as much: A spokesman for Reading Borough Council said it was “thrilled that Banksy appears to have thrown his support behind the council’s desire to transform the vacant Reading Gaol into a beacon of arts, heritage and culture with this piece of artwork".

“The council is pushing the Ministry of Justice, [which] owns the site, to make suitable arrangements to protect the image."


The video is fun, but goes as much to inform the mystique around Banksy's "outlaw" persona as record needed surreptitious activity. The work clearly involved a number of people to put it up at the corner of an intersection, with at least a pair of ladders used as a kind of scaffolding that would have had to be repeatedly reset to cover the height of the work, so it wasn't just a quick in and out sorta deal.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:00 PM on March 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


From the relevant Wilde work:

A prison wall was round us both,
Two outcast men were we:
The world had thrust us from its heart,
And God from out His care:
And the iron gin that waits for Sin
Had caught us in its snare.

posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:22 PM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


I had always imagined that Banksy was a collective of artists but admit I don't know that much about him(?).

I did a deep dive on the Internet to find a few places that outed Banksy. Did the same with The Stig. Didn't like the feeling it left me. I choose to wipe the knowledge from the mind and just enjoy the output not focus on the person.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:57 PM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


I did a deep dive on the Internet to find a few places that outed Banksy. Did the same with The Stig. Didn't like the feeling it left me. I choose to wipe the knowledge from the mind and just enjoy the output not focus on the person.
I'd speculate that Banksy is actually dril but I think Banksy isn't classy enough to be dril.
posted by NMcCoy at 2:33 PM on March 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


The work clearly involved a number of people to put it up at the corner of an intersection, with at least a pair of ladders used as a kind of scaffolding that would have had to be repeatedly reset to cover the height of the work, so it wasn't just a quick in and out sorta deal.

I’ve seen some true illegal art/writing done at impressive height and scale in fairly public places. It might have been a couple people but don’t underestimate how quickly veteran graffiti folks can get it done.
posted by atoxyl at 3:22 PM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


Like dril, knowing Banksy's identity is kind of pointless because you get basically nothing from the information they haven't already put into their work. The Stig, at least, has had careers as professional drivers.
posted by Merus at 3:35 PM on March 7, 2021


Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!


The Ballad of Reading Gaol is Oscar Wilde's most profound work.

Gavin Friday song.
posted by ovvl at 5:00 PM on March 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


viewing far afield, it's someone on the wall at Reading and upclose, brilliant, hits space, time and light. To make this to be seen at say 10 to 400 yards is difficult but I think da Vincis' sfumato is apparent. Bonus points for nighttime installation, though that's part of the beauty and to heed advice as mentioned above, don't overthink what's behind but what's before. Special kudos to Bob Ross.
posted by clavdivs at 5:58 PM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


Love this. Thanks.

derail
I did a deep dive on the Internet to find a few places that outed Banksy

I did a deep dive once on something adjacent to another thing that came up on metafilter. Seriously, I'm still haunted by what I found. I often wish I hadn't, then sometimes I'm glad satisfied that I got to learn a strong lesson about chasing after vicarious experiences and treating another person's (blogged) life as my entertainment. Ignorance sometimes is bliss, but only in memory of the time before knowing.
posted by Thella at 10:24 PM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]




We probably know who Banksy actually is (it's one person, and this is his primary body of work), but the art world seems to have decided it's an open secret and that Banksy should be allowed to continue being Banksy. Which I support.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:07 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Also, watching the end of the video (which is delightful, using Bob Ross' audio to enhance the meaning of his patter beyond actual painting): if you want to know who Banksy is, look for someone recording video of reactions in the early morning when a new piece is being discovered. You'll at least find his camera person, if not him.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:13 AM on March 16, 2021


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