I read about the artist BNE in the NY Times today. He has show opening up in New York this week. Formally I think his work has a certain rigor, an admirable bluntness. Conceptually, however, the cupboard is bare.
Upon being asked what BNE means he replies, “Let’s just say it has a meaning that’s personal to me,” and “At this point, it means whatever you need it to mean.”
Of course his “guerilla” methods also bring to mind Banksy, the comparison ends there. Banksy’s work is imbued with anarchy and sympathy, ardent revolutionary zeal. His work is just as recognizable without being merely repetitious. Like BNE he co-opts the language or graffitti, club culture. Unlike BNE he has something to say.
Warhol, the great pop art swindler, also resisted meaning in his work. He elevated the visual language of the mass production/consumption into a kind of everyman’s art, one that intially masqueraded as avant garde. I think BNE is playing the same trick here but with a bold sans-serif logotype. It could just as easily say DKNY. His show includes some pieces where he has stamped BNE over the iconography of other major brands. Again here this is not oppositional content it is merely a proclamation of his wish to heard or seen as important.
BNE sees himself in competiton with the same brands whose monolithic branding programs he emulates. He is in a way. In the way that advertiser and and their agencies understand very well. Hence, Mother New York’s sponsorship of the show. Banksy, has turned down many offers to sell out to advertising.
Mother also taints our eye with some advertiser friendly bumfluff about BNE relevance to social media.
“B.N.E. has single-handedly created a globally recognized and valued brand in the new social economy,” Mother officials said in a news release. “His presence in Flickr photo galleries and YouTube pages dwarfs that of many multinationals.”
This may be true. Is presence all that matters? How is BNE valuable? What lessons do we learn from his practice?
Ultimately BNE’s failing is that he does not pose any interesting questions. The closest he gets is this:
“I don’t see other graffiti writers as my competition anymore,” B.N.E. said. “Now I’m going up against the Tommy Hilfigers, Starbucks, Pepsi. You have these billion-dollar companies, and I’ve got to look at their logos every day. Why can’t I put mine up?”
Well BNE, you can put yours up, and you do. The means to produce this type of communication has been in our hands for a long time. The means to produce stickers, posters, video, 3d environments, virtual realities, and on and on and on. Too bad you have so very, very, little to say.
Here’s Banksy:
“The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don’t go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit.”
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