Art magnate Banksy finally has a fully functioning website again. The homepage of www.banksy.co.uk now sports a black and white illustration of a dying Dumbo surrounded by militants that fans may recognize from the parody video he released on day 6 of his Better Out Than In residency back in October of 2013. For that month, the site was update daily, sending street art aficionados and bandwagoners into a frenzied scavenger hunt. Soon after, he scrubbed all traces of those pages and since, has served up a a few denials, sporadic updates, and a campaign for Syria.
In addition to upgrading his website (using responsive design), he added a section highlighting a newly relaunched Pictures of Walls — not to be confused with Pictures on Walls — based on his 2005 book. Flanked by a new logo, the site, which has periodically been rehabilitated in the past, features galleries housing thousands of images with photo credits and a form for users to submit their own.
Like previous iterations of www.banksy.co.uk, the lefthand navigation bar in still intact with links to his “outdoor” and “inside” art. Interestingly, there’s a “films” page with a screengrab of a YouTube video entitled, “Better Out Than In – the movie,” although that seems unlikely, considering the street artist specifically said in an interview with the Village Voice last year, that there was “absolutely no reason for doing” the month-long campaign, adding “there’s no gallery show or book or film.” Then again, we are talking about Banksy and he definitely did document the spectacle as seen in his Webby Award acceptance video. On the “Q&A” page of the newly revamped site, he dispels rumors, confirms a recent piece, and even comments on the just announced exhibit of his work that his former gallerist Steve Lazarides — armed with a paint-filled fire extinguisher — is curating.
“As a kid I always dreamed of growing up to be a character in Robin Hood I never realised I’d end up playing one of the gold coins,” writes Banksy about the “Unauthorised Retrospective” at Sotheby’s London.
Other timely updates include him taking credit for the spy-themed public art he did in Cheltenham and setting the record straight about some lingering gossip in third person: “Banksy is not represented by an art gallery, is not on Facebook and has never used Twitter.” Told ya.
The street artist is now apparently encouraging feedback as well: “Please send any queries, complaints and advice for future artwork to faq@banksy.co.uk.” Oh, he also wants you to know that someone is making acid tabs with his imagery on it:
“LSD coming out of San Francisco,” reads the caption.
