A video that surfaced on Facebook’s ‘Cool Skit Group’ showed the first ever glimpse of famous vandal Banksy in the flesh, as he made his mark on a DCC commissioned powerbox artwork advertising Dunedin sound band The Chills. Banksy has long been known for his interest in justice, but has his latest provocative piece gone too far?
The video shows the bucket-hat vigilante and their assistant take to the powerbox mural with black acrylic paint (a new medium for the artist) in the name of restorative justice. According to Banksy there has been an error - the DCC have commissioned the wrong band to be featured on the powerbox. Rather, the artwork should read “Coyote”, another popular Dunedin band responsible for Radio One Top 11 number 1 hit song ‘Life is grey’ (2016). Banksy proceeds to correct the apparent mistake by painting over the work and scrawling “Coyote” beneath.
It seems that for The Chills, who are awaiting their own film and exhibition and already own all of the descriptive terms for music in Dunedin, having their own branded power supply might have been a step too far. Critic did not reach out to The Chills or their manager for comment.
Coyote posted a plea for Banksy to come forward on their Facebook page, “we've been catching a bit of heat for this, so I’d [sic] just like to clear the air. this [sic] is not how we would like to be represented !!! ITs [sic] not funny at all and frankly im [sic] pissed of [sic] . this [sic] banksy [sic] coward needs to step up come clean it up mate and stop hiding behind sunnies and bucket hat and his assitant [sic] seems like a bad egg as well.”
Will the DCC advertise for every artist in Dunedin?
Will there be justice for the original but less famous artist?
Some questions still remain unanswered, what we can confirm is that there are in fact musicians in Dunedin other than The Chills.
Note: I think the broader story here is around what we value as ‘art’ or artistic expression. Commissioning street art seems like taking punk and countercultural movements and making them commercialised and palatable to a wider community. What we have here is that notion reversed, and there has been a public outcry. Would there still be outcry if the box had been designed to catalogue a growing and inclusive list of Dunedin bands? Would that be a more authentic representation of what the Dunedin Sound should represent?