Some Banksy (Smiley) Musings (Patreon)

During the mid-00s, a curious scandal began to break in the American state known as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It's often referred to as "Kids for Cash." Between 2004 and 2008, two judges based out of Pennsylvania's Luzerne County (named after a member of the French branch of the Society of Cincinnati no less) were engaged in accepting kickbacks in exchange for imposing harsh adjudications on minors in said county so as to increase the occupancies in for-profit juvenile detention centers. Allegations persist that the for-profit detention centers were only scratching the surface of what these kids endured. The reader will recall that the Jerry Sandusky (a storied football coach long-based out of Penn State University) scandal broke several years later, in 2011, but the timeframe of Sandusky's abuse ran from roughly 1994 till 2009. Lots of interesting stuff seems to have been happening to kids in Pennslyvania amongst various state agencies, it would seem. Especially when it comes to schools, courts, and the police.

If Kids for Cash is generally downplayed in the US, a similar scandal in the UK is almost totally blacked out. The art of Banksy first started to appear in the UK's Bristol during the early 1990s in the form of graffiti. Since the very beginning, Banksy's work has been closely linked to Massive Attack's Robert "3D" Del Naja.

Some additional things to consider before we get going: The Farm's June 2022 Zoom Party, which featured a discussion of The Man Who Laughs. Contemplate some of the odd practices of the British aristocracy noted there and consider it as in the context of common law. From there, read my epic third installment in "Dispatches from Occult Cincinnati," especially the part about clowns and the Smiley Face killers. With that in mind, let us begin.

The Art

This is the early Banksy --pretty standard stuff for politically charged work from this era, quite frankly. Things began to change dramatically after 9/11, however.

Of late, The Farm has been doing some deep dives (which can be found here, here, and here) into the shaping of American mythology via bogus archeological finds from the nineteenth century, often originating with groups like the Masons and Mormons. That made this particular work especially synchy for me.

Cute, right? I bet Banksy digs Hakim Bey

Bansky's first exhibitions started during the 2002-2003 period. Arguably his most famous piece, "Girl With Balloon," dropped in 2004.

This piece kinda reminds me of this for some reason:

Yeah, I have an overactive imagination...

It was 2006's "Barely Legal" exhibition that really established him as a "major" artists, however.

Consider the namesake:

In 2010, Bansky released the celebrated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. Note where it premiered.

The hits just kept coming during the next decade.

These really struck me:

A sickle, a clock, and a smiley face. Whatever could he be getting at?

I love The Wizard of Oz too..

How could you not have a nice day after seeing all those smiley faces?

And how can you not trust this:

Probably just a coincidence these blokes have the same face.

More balloons:

And you gotta have something from a circus when you go down these roads:

Some closing thoughts:

Indeed