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Banksy In London (2003, 3 mins): outtakes from Finisterre that document the artist's work, some of which is no longer in situ Filmed and directed by Paul Kelly, Kieran Evans Edited by Paul Kelly Music by Saint Etienne Sukhdev Sandhu Piece It would be easy to be sceptical about Banksy in London, a video-length assemblage constructed by Paul Kelly and Kieran Evans when they were making Finisterre. These days the artist is the subject of international documentaries and identity-revealing exposes in the middle-brow press; his work is as likely to be found in LA as in Bristol or London and the graffiti collections he used to bring out as tiny self-published volumes make big money for international publishers. So it's actually all the more valuable to be reminded of a time when Banksy's street art was just one example - witty and eye-grabbing (and, pre-social media, something to urge friends to look out for the next time they were in East London) - of the ways in which the capital itself is a graphicscape. Forget Martin Amis or Zadie Smith, or whoever is being hailed as the latest exponent of the Great London Novel, Kelly and Evans' film shows us how the city is the ultimate textual generator: phone-booth call-cards, slogans on political placards, gig flyers, greasy-spoon signage. Much of this text is fleeting, uncommissioned, borderline invisible. As London’s public spaces become ever more codified and privatised, there's been a crackdown on such subaltern writing (just as there now is on public libraries). Banksy in London represents less a tribute to Banksy than to the idea of a multi-lettered London. |