Banksy's Tesco Flag

            Julia and I walked around London one day in an attempt to locate a few of Banksy’s works. The first piece we located was near the Highbury & Islington overground station on a wall next to a pharmacy. It was Banksy’s Tesco Flag, which originally depicted a young boy raising a Tesco flag as two other children looked on with their hands over their hearts. Bansky is clearing trying to make a statement about consumerist culture and how so many people in today’s society are not only dependent on this culture, but praise it to the point of worship.

            The interesting aspect about this piece, however, is that while Banksy is clearly trying to make a point about consumerism and corporate institutions in general, his artwork is covered by a sheet of plastic. The top half that originally covered the flag was broken, and both the flag and the two children’s faces had been painted over. At some point, however, someone must have considered this graffiti “art”, enough so that they wanted to preserve it. By being such a well-known artist, Banksy is in a sense giving in to this consumerist or institutionalized culture – he surely has his own sort of “cult” following. This begs the question – is it possible to make a political statement through art without invalidating that statement by the ritualized culture that surrounds art admiration for aesthetic reasons?

 

Posted by: Maddy