WHO SHOULD PLAY STREET ART?

Dilettante and STREETart do not go well together. IF you do not know get out of the way and let the informed inform you. Alternatively, get informed before playing lest you risk being seen as stupid or something less kind.

Season's Greetings (2018) by pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director, Banksy, whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation.

Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians, and he says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.

Season's Greetings is a mural which first appeared in the industrial town of Port Talbot in South Wales in December 2018. Painted onto the wall of a garage owned by local steelworker, Ian Lewis, from one angle the mural appears to show a child enjoying a snow shower. From another it becomes clear that the snow is in fact ash being produced from a burning dumpster, a possible comment on the poor air quality in the area.

The work drew crowds after Banksy confirmed it as his, posting a video online along with the message “Season’s Greetings”.

Ian Lewis had no idea just how many people would want to get a good look at it; the mural attracted thousands of visitors. Lewis was keen to protect it, employing guards and building a perspex screen over the work to protect it after a reported attempt to vandalise it.

It was removed in Feb 2022 and bought for six figures by gallery owner, John Brandler. It was taken to a building in the town centre so the public could visit, but an agreement to keep it there expired and John Brandler moved it out of Wales, with the University of Suffolk thought to be the University of Suffolk. Plans to display it there “fell through”, according to John Brandler. No further information as to its whereabout is available.

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