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graffi g raf fittii a artist rtist When W Wh enn B Banksy aannnks ksy ks sy star st started tarrteed do doing oing ing gr in ggraffi a fifitititi in af in the thhe 1990s 1990 19 990 90ss he used useed spray sppra rayy paints. p innts. pa tss This wayy of wa of w o kkiingg w or as sslow as low an low lo aand ndd he ddidn’t idn’ id n’tt al n’ aalways w ys fifinnish wa nissh the the work woorkk bbefore efor ef ore hhe ore or working was was caught. So he started to use stencils, which was much quicker. After that Banksy’s graffiti appeared on lots of buildings in Bristol and London. His work soon became well known and he began to take greater and greater risks. First he climbed in with the penguins at London Zoo and painted ‘We’re bored with fish’ on the wall in large letters. Next he went to Bristol Zoo and painted a message on the elephants’ wall. It began, ‘I want out. This place is too cold ...’. Then in 2004 he walked into the Louvre, in Paris, and put his painting of the Mona Lisa next to the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It was quickly removed. After the Louvre, Banksy put his primitive cave painting in the British Museum in London. While it was hanging on the wall in the museum, hundreds of people stopped to look at the painting and it stayed there for three days. Finally the staff at the museum discovered it and took it down, but it’s now in the British Museum’s permanent collection. Another of Banksy’s ideas was to print his own money. He made a million pounds’ worth of £10 notes. Instead of ‘Bank of England’ the notes said ‘Banksy of England’, and he replaced the Queen’s head with the head of Princess Diana. Hundreds of these bank notes were thrown into the crowd at a music festival. Some people actually used the money to buy things and others later sold their £10 notes on eBay for £200 each. Banksy is now internationally famous and his graffiti can be found in countries all over the world. You can also buy Banksy mugs, T-shirts, posters and postcards. In 2010 there was a film about Banksy called Exit Through the Gift Shop, and in the same year he created the opening and closing sequence in an episode of The Simpsons. Banksy isn’t the artist’s real name and, like many graffiti artists, he has always tried to keep his identity a secret. And what does he hate most? CCTV cameras, of course!
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Read an interview with Leon, a graffi affiti ti artist from London. Choose the correct words. 1 First/Next
I fi nd a good place. I plan what I want to do and 3while/after that I make my stencil. 4Next/When I collect all the things I need to take. 5Then/While I wait until it gets dark. 6When/Then it’s dark I drive to where I’m going to do the graffiti. 7While/First I park the car, 8then/when I check that nobody’s around. 9After that/First I start painting. But 10 while/finally I’m working I always check to see if anyone is coming. 11When/Next I’m happy with the piece I sign my name. 12 Finally/While I pack up everything and leave before it gets light. 2Then/Finally
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Work in groups. Discuss these questions. Do you think Banksy and Leon are artists or criminals? Why? 2 What do you think the police should do when they catch a graffiti artist at work? 3 Imagine you were a graffiti artist. What would you draw or write about? 1
face2face Second edition Pre-intermediate © Cambridge University Press 2012
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