Saturday, July 19, 2008

Less Well-Known Banksy, and introducing.....

To fill the void of this incredibly dull period of inactivity on the local streets, lets have a look at some obscure, less well-known but not likely to have been forgotten Banksy pieces. Firstly, in one of those grotty yet achingly trendy shoreditch arty farty bars Mr HowAboutNo, obviously being younger and trendier and still able to rock a goatee look from time to time, revealed an indoor happy chopper and Grin Reaper, their appeal enhanced by the accumulation of many years of dogging.




Yes, that is Faile just to the right.

Then by complete coincidence the same week something came to light at a friend's book launch in one of the wierdest old buildings in London's West End, its' internal architecture being arranged to serve a medicinal purpose not required since the petrol engine achieved mass popularity (sorry - obscurity here is to protect the location's identity). Down a flight of back stairs were a couple of very sharp Banksy tags.




photos T. Lezard (who had a camera WITH functioning batteries!)

The manager of the building said that they had been done in about 2000 and that they had apeared at the same time as a couple of stencil images which they now know as Banksy on a wall outside. I conferred with a expert at turning guesswork, supposition and speculation into hard fact - Shellshock, and he confirmed the existence of the pieces on the outside wall, so those tags inside must the the genuine article, right?

Anyway, as his name has been brought up, lets introduce the latest addition to the Graffoto stable of bullshitters. Hailing from the west country but none the less able to read and write, Shellshock carved himself a niche as a Banksy guru. He organised and led the now legendary 2006 Banksy guided walking tours and wrote the Banksy Locations And Tours photoguide book to London places where there are or used to be Banksys.



In between acting as a poster child for the debilitating effects of a vegan diet ("I'd give it 5 minutes if I was you") and (genuinely) being heavily involved in community and charity activities both in the deprived areas of inner cities and voluntary work overseas, Shellshock has acquired an advanced taste for visual vandalism. Having recently moved up North in his relentless pursuit of an older civilisation to complement his strict adherence to the ancient art of printing photos without electricity, Shellshock is going to brighten our lives with news and opinions on hardcore graffiti matters from the Manchester area. And anything else he can be arsed to write about. Or photograph. yayyyyyyyyyyyy!"

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