What do you see here in this image?
I’ll express to you what my eyes tell me…
I see a brick wall, that’s covered in shadows with patches of escaped light.
I see a black and white spray painting, depicting a man wearing blankets, gloves and a beanie. The construction of the piece makes it appear the man is sitting against the wall. At the man’s feet sits a cup that appears empty. The man is holding a sign in his hands that reads “KEEP YOUR COINS. I WANT CHANGE.”
In the bottom right of the image I see a word spray painted on the wall in the colour white and an unusual font, that reads “BANKSY”.
Okay, enough on the boring stuff regarding what the eye sees, let’s talk about what this means…
Are you interested in seeing an argument unfold? All you have to do is place a totally random collection of people (young, old, male, female, rich, socioeconomically challenged etc. etc.) in one room together, and ask them to discuss what this image means to them. How does it make them feel? What message do they think it broadcasts?
You know, I honestly did think about putting definitions for the words “connotation” and “denotation” here, but I’d rather keep your attention. Quite simply, we all interpret this uniquely, this is a complex representation. Representation being the word of choice here, because this is not a man sitting against a wall, it is the representation of a man sitting against a wall, and representations portray a meaning. The meaning that one finds in a representation depends on a variety of factors – prior knowledge, ideological position, bias, and emotional state.
This image is not definitively and/or literally about anything. Banksy (world renowned satirical street artist) has created this image to insert a feeling into the viewer, a feeling that may not be common or shared. Where a young female art student sees a creative piece calling for social reconstruction, an elderly man sees a defacement of public property that has no intellectual or emotional connection. Chris Johnston writes positively in The Age newspaper, “There is plenty of political expression in the art that adorns Melbourne’s walls”, when at the same time the Oxford Dictionary of English defines graffiti as “writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly”. Me personally, I see a flawless, hard-hitting representation of a call for change in the social hierarchy. The clever twist on the word “change”, the irony of the homeless man leaving behind his quest for money, I find it so very intriguing and fascinating how an artist can evoke such emotion and sensation out of a painting. Maybe I’m a biased Banksy fan, maybe I’m feeling radical right now, either way, I have my own opinion and feeling.
Do you have an opinion on this specific representation? Do you have some kind of image or any kind of source of information that conveys multiple meanings? Be sure to share in the comment section.
It’s not always about searching for what is real and truthful, it is often about simply accepting your own feeling.
“The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.” – French naturalism writer, Edmond de Concourt.
communicatingjosh 