A locals thoughts on Banksy in Birmingham, AL~USA, by Daniel Silk on Sept 3, 2008 16:33:26 GMT 1, www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1220429804325250.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

Famed artist may have left local mark
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
JEREMY GRAY
News staff writer
By Tuesday morning, the image of a lynched Klansman was painted over. By Tuesday afternoon, the portion of the wall the image was painted on was taken, but the question remained: Had famed graffiti artist Banksy left his mark on Birmingham?

Last week, Banksy, an English artist whose identity has never been publicly revealed and whose works have fetched millions of dollars, was reported to be in New Orleans as the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina neared.

A New York Times article on Aug. 28 said his work while in New Orleans included "Abraham Lincoln as a homeless man pushing a basket, a marching band wearing gas masks, an old man in a rocking chair with an American flag below the words `No Loitering,' and a boy on a swing made out of a life preserver."

Doug Baulos, an art professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said he believes the Klansman image, which appeared Friday on an abandoned west Birmingham gas station, to be the work of Banksy.

It was rumored, Baulos said, that Banksy was in town overnight and painted two images, although Baulos said he did not know where the other was painted or what it looked like.

Banksy apparently visited a place called the "benching spot," an area off of Morris Avenue where graffiti artists gather to look at the work of "taggers" on the passing trains, Baulos said.

"It's a cultural phenomenon," Baulos said. "A lot of graffiti artists have been economically successful, but it's illegal. I think his work is superinteresting."

The images, often spray painted on the sides of buildings using stencils, were the latest from an elusive artist whose work has been purchased for millions.

Earlier this year, a wall he painted on was detached from a building and auctioned for more than $450,000, according to an article in The Australian. A sketch he donated to England's Labour Party was auctioned for more than $350,000, according to a BBC News report.

On Friday, as people fled the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Gustav, two men, one taller, the other with a red beard, went to an abandoned Bush Boulevard Chevron station and set up a canvas screen that blocked the public's view, according to an employee of the Bush Quik Stop across the street.

When the canvas came down, the men's work - an image of the lifeless body of a man in Ku Klux Klan robes dangling from a noose - was unveiled, the employee said.

Sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, the image was covered in black spray paint. By late Tuesday afternoon, that portion of the wall had mysteriously disappeared.

The employee, who would identify himself only as Shaka, said he believed young people in the community painted over the image.

"It was artistic; it was beautiful," Shaka said. "But there are so many messages you can put out there, why one promoting hate?" Shaka asked.

Several Internet blogs that follow the work of Banksy and other so-called street artists reported that the image was in fact the work of Banksy.

"After leaving New Orleans, it appears Banksy is now heading through the Deep South," wrote a poster at the New York-based Wooster Collective, a Web site that tracks Banksy's work.

Wooster founder Marc Schiller, who has tracked the artist's career, said the work was definitely Banksy's and should be on the artist's Web site in the next few days. "The people who know his work can tell the difference," Schiller said in an interview Tuesday.

Schiller said he did not know what message the artist was trying to convey. News staff writer Toraine Norris contributed to this report. On the Net

www.banksy.co.uk jgray@bhamnews.com