“But what if Banksy isn’t the one person everyone thinks he is”. Investigative journalist Craig Williams asserts that the appearance of new Banksy artwork in areas where Massive Attack has had shows has to be more than a coincidence.
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He lists dozens of locations across the globe where the appearance of Banksy murals and Massive Attack tours seem to have coincided, including the band’s September 2006 show at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, which came a week and a half after a Banksy stunt at Disneyland, and Massive Attack’s residency in NY in the fall of 2013 coincided with the appearance of Banksy’s mural “The Street is in Play”.
A new theory has emerged regarding the identity of Banksy which suggests the world famous graffiti artist is actually several people, including one of the members the British group Massive Attack.
Banksy has also tried to distance himself from 3D, claiming Del Naja is too old, saying, “When I was about 10 years old a kid called 3D was painting the streets hard; I think he’d been to NY and was the first to bring spray painting back to Bristol”.
Del Naja was a graffiti artist long before becoming the “creative director” of sorts of Massive Attack, and is held in high regard as one of the pioneers of the stencil graffiti movement, helping to bring hip-hop and graffiti culture to Bristol in the 1980s. Nonetheless, it’s a cool theory, which you can read it in full here.
“Perhaps the assertion then that Banksy is just one person is wide of the mark, instead being a group who have, over the years, followed Massive Attack around and painted walls at their leisure”, said Craig. -In August 2008 Banksy painted three murals in New Orleans to commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
The latest suspect centers on musician and one-time stencil-graffiti artist Robert “3D” Del Naja.
Mr Williams has apparently discovered at least six occasions where work claimed by Banksy has popped up around the world shortly before the group appeared in the same cities.
Massive Attack played Toronto a week later – before more new Banksy murals were reported there. In addition, a 2006 exhibition of Banksy’s work in Los Angeles took place shortly after Massive Attack played the Hollywood Bowl, and the band’s 2013 NY dates were matched with his month-long residency there.
It’s also worth noting that Massive Attack cancelled a headline performance at Banksy’s “Dismaland” event in September, citing “technical difficulties”.
And the graffiti artist provides the foreword to 3D and the Art of Massive Attack, released last year, stating: “When I was about 10 years old, a kid called 3D was painting the streets hard”. Between that and what lurks beneath the Daft Punk helmets, there aren’t too many *true b *Robin Gunningham as the mastermind behind the Banksy phenomena. He even shared the flat with Jamie Eastman, who worked for the Hombre record label who have – you guessed it – used illustrations by Banksy on their releases.
“As for the timing of the news, I believe a new mural is highly likely to appear prior to or after the concert (in Bristol)”.
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There have been plenty of suspicions about the true identity of the enigmatic street artist.
