@james they all have deep symbolism and are quite location specific - which I guess is true for most of his stuff. And a good time to stay anonymous in the capital I suppose…

I'm sure people are looking a stretching cat, and a goat looking at a CCTV camera and ascribing meaning along the lines "Banksy is not for all of this fascism" but it all feels pretty bizzarre to me.

I'd like him to say what he means. Give context. Because we've seen just how much misinformation and choosing our meaning for things has caused great harm this week.

As well as his shit going for millions: one of his new pieces stolen within hours to go and get sold somewhere I'm sure.

Happy to be corrected, but it feels very off to me.

(I know people selling and profiting off of his work, is not his fault, fwiw)

https://hackers.town/@kestral/112938800749370111 I understand and appreciate what Kestral said here, fwiw.

@james I’d like to see him exclusively doing his stuff in council properties, with an explicit message that they’re welcome to sell it to fund things like breakfast clubs and building more council housing. Guerrila local government funding.

I'm probably just being unnecessarily salty and putting too much onus on the artist.

I've a lot of stress from what's going on and at first glance I'm like, just give a little context so the message is understood by those who need to hear it most.

I accept being wrong on that

@james no, I think you’re right. Art is communication. Sometimes, the message is only for a small audience, so it doesn’t need to make sense to most people. Who is B’s target audience? Do they understand the message? If not, the communication, and the art, has failed. Either that or the target audience is too narrow and the artist’s intention is bad.

@james
I'm always going back and forth between two ends
- artists just make art and we shouldn't put expectations on them, it's not their job to fix society.
- artists should use their platform and take responsibility.

I really agree with both of those statements. So yeah I understand you'd like banksy to do something but I also think that that's not his job?

@kestral it'd mean a lot more if he said what he meant. words are needed at the moment.

@james not sure I agree with the first sentence, though generally agree with the second. None of his art ever has words. And I’d agree words are needed but that’s not on banksy. He’s just an artist, we need words from people whose job it is to bring cohesion. Art is going to art.

@kestral I understand that, and I appreciate being challenged on this.