"Love is in the Air"

Displaying street art in a museum seems to be a type of oxymoron.  The unprotected, raw canvas of brick  and pristine, white gallery walls sheltered by alarms are on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, the Moco Museum challenges this contradiction with Banksy’s exhibition, Laugh Now. Originally, Banksy himself created satirical graffiti pieces as a hobby and never imagined making a living as a street artist. Now, people all over the world anxiously await the next Banksy creation. They flock to see stairwells and concrete walls spray painted and adorned with his visual messages. City officials who used to be concerned with removing graffiti are now covering Banksy’s works with Plexiglass. Previously, having Banksy’s street art all over the world called people to travel to the specific areas to view them. Laugh Now brings together his most famous prints and stenciled graffiti to one place, so that they can be viewed in conjunction with one another to better understand Banksy and his artistic statement. This is the first time in history that there is a Banksy exhibition in a museum. Some works have been preserved on the original brick they were painted onto, saved from the rubble of buildings that were torn down. Displaying these side by side with Banksy’s lesser known indoor art presents a more complete picture of the artist.

In a room with pieces such as “Cardinal Sin” and “Laugh Now,” Banksy’s “Love is in the Air” sits on a separate pedestal that automatically grants it an importance in the space. The piece was cut out of the original wall it was displayed on and then set into a larger piece of concrete. If the piece had been removed from a structurally sound wall solely for the purpose of presenting it in the exhibition, several points of friction may arise concerning the artist’s intention. However, the pieces in the museum were “saved” from otherwise demolished buildings Therefore, it is better to keep these ephemeral works of art intact rather than only living in copies or photographs.

Banksy’s piece “Love is in the Air” first appeared in Jerusalem. It features a man wearing a kerchief and baseball cap throwing a bouquet of flowers. The image was originally made with a stencil, and then spray painted in black. Since then it has been redone in prints with added colors, but the simple black image calls intention to the form itself. As a simple black form that does not establish a specific identity, it is reminiscent of images from the 1960s of campus and street riots since it could represent any one of the participants of these riots. The original concrete provides so much in terms of texture for the stenciled piece, as all the resulting bumps and smudges show evidence of the artistic process and wear and tear overtime. The slight tinge of green in the upper corner of the piece is not due to the original spray painting but rather the natural colors present in the concrete itself. This idea of creating on a canvas that has its own connotations, such as a building or a vintage pastiche, is characteristic of Banksy. By doing this, he adds value and meaning to an otherwise looked over piece of the environment. He also challenges the boundary between destructive graffiti that must be removed and graffiti that is deemed art. Banksy’s art can be destructive in a different sense, because of the controversial topics it tackles. What crosses it over into the realm of activist art it that it brings these topics to the awareness of viewers in an art form that they have seen before and can understand.

The posture of the man in “Love is in the Air” demonstrates frustration and even anger. His drawn back arm suggests movement and that he is about to perform a quick action. In a sense, he is about to bomb an establishment with flowers. Flowers and bombs are polar opposites, as the former represents hope and life whereas the latter can cause utter destruction and death in an instant. By replacing the object in the man’s hand with a flower, Banksy calls for a resolution in conflict. One drawback of stenciled graffiti art is that the expression on the subject’s face is not very clear. The stencil approach calls for a simple form and so such intricacies cannot always be discovered directly. The subject has a determined stance, and so even without a facial expression one decipher the extreme vigor this man has for using a peaceful means to solve the conflict at hand.

This piece is especially relevant today, with recent revivals in justice movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Israel-Palestine conflict. It can also be applied to terrorist attacks around the world that use violence to reach resolutions, which is the opposite of what Banksy wishes for with “Love is in the Air.” Banksy plays with the differences between up-close and far away views in this piece, which make it especially effective. From across the gallery, one could mistake this piece for a man tossing a bomb. The flowers in his hand have an incendiary look to them which causes an initial double take. However, at a closer glance, Banksy’s true intentions become clear and the flowers begin to express the love in the air more than anything else.