: URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 1
Illiana Curiel
Visual Analysis of Urban Street Art
University of Texas at El Paso
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 2
The image that will be analyzed today is an original Banksy piece. Banksy is one of the worlds most famous street/graffiti artist of our time. He originated in the UK and eventually people started seeing his work in America specifically in big cities like Los Angeles and New York. Banksy is mostly known for his politically dry humor in all his works of art that he does. The Image that I will be analyzing is not very straight forward therefore the ethos, pathos, and logos in the image that I will be explaining will help the reader understand the artist’s rhetorical strategy.
The message to this image is what looks to be two American tourists maybe visiting a foreign country being carried in a carriage looking thing by a small child. The two adults being carried are very large in size and white so I am assuming they would be the ideal picture of what Banksy is explaining to be American tourists. Child labor is a huge political topic. As living in America we don’t see child labor as a huge deal because we never see it but all over the world in third world countries child labor is something that is strongly taking over.
This image has a strong political and cultural side to it so my thoughts on who the audience would be is 1) people who are interested in world events, 2) are in college or very young in age, 3) people who are familiar with banksys work and are huge fans of him. The audience must have a really witty sense of humor and someone who will be able to look at the picture and understand that its true meaning is child labor. Also the audience must understand and know a lot about the history of child labor and how it originates in third world countries and not so many of us are aware of this.
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 3
The ethos to this image does not have as much as other images he has created. This image has less creditability and if we did try and look for the creditability it will be very difficult. The artist Banksy has a lot of ethos to himself he has a very huge fan base and everyone knows him as a graffiti artist that adds dry humor an political references to his art. It is expected of him to paint something so clever and worldwide known. By people seeing the picture itself they might not give it a lot of credit or believe it at all. But once they find out who the artist is people give a lot of respect to Banksy because of his reputation and previous work he has done.
There is a lot of pathos in this image there is a lot of sympathy for the young boy carrying the American tourist. Naturally that’s going to be the response from a lot of people that do look at this picture. The boy looks like he is struggling and he is very tired of carrying him but the adults don’t seem to have a care in the world they are taking pictures of themselves. It seems to be a very self-inflicting picture whereas the selfishness of the adults comes through. The fact that we are used to child labor as being a normal thing we accept it instead of being against it and standing up for it. It gives a lot of emotions in the way you would say why doesn’t anyone stand up for child labor laws? Because actually doing something would take some effort therefore we don’t do anything about it and we are basically pushing the child labor and allowing it and that hurts a lot of us.
The logic to this image is written all over the painting. It shows that we take advantage and we don’t think child labor is bad for the world because we’re using it we are basically excepting it. To build the argument the artist painted the two very large
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 4
adults snapping a picture of them and that really helps us audience to realize what the artist was aiming at. That the tourists are selfish, fat, and lazy and they don’t even realize they are being carried around by an innocent small child. The artist Banksy wants to put a logical message out to the worlds that we don’t really care about anyone else but ourselves and of course being Banksy he is putting it in a very cry humor way. It’s a funny picture when you first see because of the truth that is really coming out of the picture.
Really understanding the picture has become clearer that we covered logos, pathos and ethos. We saw that it gave an emotional impact on us and also there was a lot of logic in this visual that was hidden for example the fact that the adults being carried around didn’t even realize it was a child carrying them. It shows the selfishness that the world has really become. The ethos is very clear because of who the artist is and what he usually stands for example political jokes and clever dry humor paintings. The style and the point the picture makes is easily shown through and artist’s rhetorical strategy really shines through in this visual.
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 5
References
Banksy (n.d.). retrieved from:
http://ne1.attach.mail.ymail.com/us.f1200.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?mid=2_0_0_1_15591972_AI9VimIAAONzUG38AwHIfklDvEc&pid=2&fid=Inbox&inline=1&cred=wxikcG8WSwyU7vQA9_5opAPiP.4ReWg_c1rcLdxbB_6FE7CqMJ0IHCrc6WoJB2qJ4A06nJ1CK9zYw6NIHYk6QRBOcZTkYyAZzS.ynhrBEgFL0Hykp.yzlEpogDGuyqnE6qrqXraMYjDsKBZ4Chg-&ts=1349385248&partner=ymail&sig=7.fx2yucaOV1AnsZujfA4Q--
Illiana Curiel
Visual Analysis of Urban Street Art
University of Texas at El Paso
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 2
The image that will be analyzed today is an original Banksy piece. Banksy is one of the worlds most famous street/graffiti artist of our time. He originated in the UK and eventually people started seeing his work in America specifically in big cities like Los Angeles and New York. Banksy is mostly known for his politically dry humor in all his works of art that he does. The Image that I will be analyzing is not very straight forward therefore the ethos, pathos, and logos in the image that I will be explaining will help the reader understand the artist’s rhetorical strategy.
The message to this image is what looks to be two American tourists maybe visiting a foreign country being carried in a carriage looking thing by a small child. The two adults being carried are very large in size and white so I am assuming they would be the ideal picture of what Banksy is explaining to be American tourists. Child labor is a huge political topic. As living in America we don’t see child labor as a huge deal because we never see it but all over the world in third world countries child labor is something that is strongly taking over.
This image has a strong political and cultural side to it so my thoughts on who the audience would be is 1) people who are interested in world events, 2) are in college or very young in age, 3) people who are familiar with banksys work and are huge fans of him. The audience must have a really witty sense of humor and someone who will be able to look at the picture and understand that its true meaning is child labor. Also the audience must understand and know a lot about the history of child labor and how it originates in third world countries and not so many of us are aware of this.
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 3
The ethos to this image does not have as much as other images he has created. This image has less creditability and if we did try and look for the creditability it will be very difficult. The artist Banksy has a lot of ethos to himself he has a very huge fan base and everyone knows him as a graffiti artist that adds dry humor an political references to his art. It is expected of him to paint something so clever and worldwide known. By people seeing the picture itself they might not give it a lot of credit or believe it at all. But once they find out who the artist is people give a lot of respect to Banksy because of his reputation and previous work he has done.
There is a lot of pathos in this image there is a lot of sympathy for the young boy carrying the American tourist. Naturally that’s going to be the response from a lot of people that do look at this picture. The boy looks like he is struggling and he is very tired of carrying him but the adults don’t seem to have a care in the world they are taking pictures of themselves. It seems to be a very self-inflicting picture whereas the selfishness of the adults comes through. The fact that we are used to child labor as being a normal thing we accept it instead of being against it and standing up for it. It gives a lot of emotions in the way you would say why doesn’t anyone stand up for child labor laws? Because actually doing something would take some effort therefore we don’t do anything about it and we are basically pushing the child labor and allowing it and that hurts a lot of us.
The logic to this image is written all over the painting. It shows that we take advantage and we don’t think child labor is bad for the world because we’re using it we are basically excepting it. To build the argument the artist painted the two very large
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 4
adults snapping a picture of them and that really helps us audience to realize what the artist was aiming at. That the tourists are selfish, fat, and lazy and they don’t even realize they are being carried around by an innocent small child. The artist Banksy wants to put a logical message out to the worlds that we don’t really care about anyone else but ourselves and of course being Banksy he is putting it in a very cry humor way. It’s a funny picture when you first see because of the truth that is really coming out of the picture.
Really understanding the picture has become clearer that we covered logos, pathos and ethos. We saw that it gave an emotional impact on us and also there was a lot of logic in this visual that was hidden for example the fact that the adults being carried around didn’t even realize it was a child carrying them. It shows the selfishness that the world has really become. The ethos is very clear because of who the artist is and what he usually stands for example political jokes and clever dry humor paintings. The style and the point the picture makes is easily shown through and artist’s rhetorical strategy really shines through in this visual.
URBAN STREET ART ANALYSIS 5
References
Banksy (n.d.). retrieved from:
http://ne1.attach.mail.ymail.com/us.f1200.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?mid=2_0_0_1_15591972_AI9VimIAAONzUG38AwHIfklDvEc&pid=2&fid=Inbox&inline=1&cred=wxikcG8WSwyU7vQA9_5opAPiP.4ReWg_c1rcLdxbB_6FE7CqMJ0IHCrc6WoJB2qJ4A06nJ1CK9zYw6NIHYk6QRBOcZTkYyAZzS.ynhrBEgFL0Hykp.yzlEpogDGuyqnE6qrqXraMYjDsKBZ4Chg-&ts=1349385248&partner=ymail&sig=7.fx2yucaOV1AnsZujfA4Q--