ooff, that was a punch
But many thanks for the infos.
Been watching Ban
ksy since back in the days and always loved his attitude.
Thats why I did not buy any art from him (I knew he would despise me for doin)
Was active myself and somehow getting old now... Guess I wish just a piece of the past on my wall... dont know. But then suddenly I could not afford a piece of him because they rised unbelievable...
So I guess I fall under group (A) - the idiots
I red about Banksy that he did in fact authorize the WOS records, since he was kind of a part of them.
Also the "DJDM laugh now" and "We love you.."was authorized (if I am not wrong informed)? Thought I could catch some of his works that I can afford via vinyls...
Now been a bit disillusioned
Cheers
If you'll forgive the pedantry about your joking remark, I referred
not to
idiocy, but to
ignorance.
Idiocy would be an immutable characteristic. A permanent state.
Ignorance is merely the absence of knowledge. Everybody is ignorant about myriad subject matters. And, fortunately, this is something we can remedy, little by little โ provided we have the will to do so.
2. Of course, idiocy and ignorance are not mutually exclusive. Each of us can be afflicted with both.
There is also a
grey area between ignorance and knowledge:
In many instances, we may for example
lack certainty about topics relating to Ban
ksy ephemera.
Nevertheless, there will be plenty of cases where we can
still determine that particular items are
most likely to be knockoffs or fakes.
It just requires putting in some effort, opening our eyes to the artist's modus operandi (i.e. becoming pattern‑seekers), and thinking things through โ by using publicly‑available information along with basic logic or deductive reasoning, and weighing up the probabilities.
In a
future post, I'll be more specific about this thought process in the context of record sleeves that feature Ban
ksy's art.
3. If I gave the false impression that Ban
ksy never worked with record companies, then apologies. That wasn't my intention.
He certainly did commissioned work with
labels and sub‑labels earlier in his career. These would include:
โข
Blowpop Records;
โข
Telstar;
โข
Hombrรฉ;
โข
Wall of Sound;
โข
We Love You;
โข
Bad Magic;
โข
Whoa Music & Ultimate Dilemma (the
Badmeaningood series); and
โข
Parlophone (the Blur
Think Tank releases).
You can also find limited numbers of
stencil‑sprayed promo sleeves for at least a couple of records:
โข Capoeira Twins,
Four (4x3) /
Truth Will Out 12", released by Blowpop Records in 1999; and
โข Rรถyksopp,
Melody A.M., released by Wall of Sound in 2001.
Unsurprisingly,
counterfeits of these stencilled items are in circulation as well.
Hence the need to fully educate oneself before even thinking about purchasing such an expensive collectible. This, as opposed to outsourcing our due diligence responsibilities to some dealer or auction house, whose primary objective is to part us of our money.
It is always worth remembering that the safety net of certificates of authenticity from Pest Control Office does not exist for the minefield that is the Ban
ksy-ephemera market.
4. To remove all doubt, the
DJDM releases (โ Danger Mouse) used
unauthorised (i.e. stolen) images of
Laugh Now and
Keep It Real on their sleeves.
As far as I'm concerned, like other fakes, they are embarrassing, only serving to undermine the credibility of a collection.
5. A dialogue on a separate thread, titled
Banksy Radar Rat โข Dirty Funker 12", may be of interest to you.
Admin has a tendency to move posts around on this message board (which can lead to helpful, pre‑existing links becoming dead), but the relevant exchange from AprilโMay 2024 is currently on
page 38 of that thread:
urbanartassociation.com/thread/45942/banksy-radar-rat-dirty-funker?page=38One of the points emphasised relates to the
confusion and collective ignorance in the marketplace for Ban
ksy ephemera.
This has led to a
perverse and depressing irony, whereby enthusiasts continue to purchase records featuring
stolen images (e.g. Dirty Funker and DJDM), spending sums of cash that are sometimes comparable to what legitimate releases with
authorised images will sell for.
The blind leading the blind.
6. More generally, we can often see other people
acting in a similar manner, e.g. investing in a particular artist, or paying comparable amounts for a specific piece.
But when we haven't bothered to do our own homework, it is very easy to just assume such consistency means everybody else actually did
their homework. That they did the necessary research, the fact‑checking, the requisite thinking. And all of them arrived at the same,
informed conclusion โ thus explaining their similar behaviour.
However, a disconcerting,
alternative explanation could be that most of the parties are equally lazy on the due diligence front, equally clueless, with each simply banking on the assumption that everyone around them surely
must know what they're doing.
In this latter scenario, the consistency of behaviour would then be based, less on the group's collective knowledge, than on the sheep‑like instinct of its individual members to follow what they perceive to be the general direction of the herd.
7. I hope the above additional information and commentary will be of assistance.
