Is Banksy in Sydney?
Walking through a back lane in Stanmore the other day and saw this very familiar stencil (see pics).
It is none other than a very well known graffiti stencil from (quite possibly) the most famous graffiti artis in the world: Banksy – from Bristol in London.
It’s not the first time Banksy has come to Sydney to complement the public Sydney canvas with his free artistry, but I never expected to see one in a very out-of-the-way back lane in Stanmore… But this is the inner west! And low and behold I saw the first stencil go up and then a few weeks later, some more stencils added… Has Banksy been in Sydney for weeks? Staying with mates in Stanmore?
To add more fuel to my curiosity, I even saw one of his trademark rat stencils in Petersham with one of his slogans, and also a bunch of street posters and billboards in Newtown that had bright yellow smiley face stickers plastered over the top – another banksy trademark…
It could very well be that these are rip-offs (it does happen), but they may be genuine. I prefer to believe the latter.
I’d love to meet the man, but that’d be difficult seeing as no one really seems to know who he is… the problems of being brilliant yet illegal artist… (Banksy, if you’re googling your name and end up here, feel free to leave comment!)
Either way, my advice to young players is to keep your eye out for the little Banksy gems that might be gracing the streets of Sydney and start by familiarising yourself with his works at www.banksy.co.uk
10 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Um, Bristol’s not in London, it’s right on the other side of England (South West corner)…
Very cool art though.
Yeah, I meant to say Bristol England…
woops
I like it in movies when they say “London, Eng-a-land”…
Banksy is fantastic. I’ve heard he’s been here before, there used to be a monkey on Oxford St (a bit past Taylor Square)…?
Did you see this article??
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24015566-5013560,00.html
Where was the one is Stanmore? I am a massive fan.
It’s on the corner of Durham lane and Rosevear St Stanmore on the back of some dude’s garage.
Hey..
I was so excited to read your blog and find that there was some Banksy work in Sydney. I checked out the sites in stanmore and enmore yesterday, and it definitley smelt of Banksy, so I too am choosing to believe that they’re originals.
I was recently in melbourne on a mission to find some of Banksy’s work and came across the famous “little diver” but was unable to track down any of his other work, and was told that a lot of it has been cleaned away.
Its such a shame!!
i was in melbourne just last week and without trying i found a few banksy’s, the easiest was actually on the very popular Brunswick st, on the wall of an entry to a building somewhere in the middle, its a rat and an eagle but absolutely a banksy. Some nob scribbled some things around/over it- but its definately there and very easy to miss.
can anyone tell me where some more are in sydney, i keep hearing theres some on oxford st but where specifically?