title: The Wachowskis

text: In December 2009, Arianna Huffington tweeted pictures of herself on the set of "a Wachowskis movie on Iraq from the perspective of the future". "CHUD.com" reported what the Wachowskis were doing was camera tests and shooting of test footage on the Red digital camera for a future movie, but not shooting the movie itself. In March 2010, Jesse Ventura said he had also shot for the project right before Huffington. Both of them were dressed as people from roughly 100 years in the future and they were asked to improvize without a script about the Iraq War. In May 2010, "Deadline" reported the movie was going to be a hard-R story that would begin in the future but move back to the then-current war in Iraq and center on the homosexual relationship between an American soldier and an Iraqi. The Wachowskis completed the script and were searching for funding to direct it. In July 2010, the movie was reported to have begun casting under the codename "CN9" (or "CN-9"), and in August 2010 the full name was revealed as "Cobalt Neural 9". In September 2010, "Vulture" posted additional details about the script and revealed the movie would be told in found footage-style from the perspective of digital archaeologists from the future. An estimated $20 million budget was reported although they were told a studio would "never, ever" finance it but perhaps the Wachowskis could do it themselves. In December 2010, "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that Salman Rushdie and Cornel West had also shot talking head sequences along with the previously reported involvement of Huffington and Ventura but the Wachowskis were looking into other movies because of troubles financing it. In September 2012, Aleksandar Hemon wrote about the making of "Cloud Atlas" and recalled he too was one of the people the Wachowskis had invited to interview in December 2009, to help inspire the script of "Cobalt Neural 9". The last update on the film was in October 2012, when the Wachowskis were asked about it and they responded they were still keen to make it, because they had invested both financially ($5 million) and emotionally into it, even if that ends up being in a different form than film.


title: The Wachowskis

text: In December 2010, "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that the Wachowskis were planning to direct for Warner Bros. a script of theirs called "Hood", which was a modern adaptation of the Robin Hood legend. The Wachowskis were said to be reaching out to actors, including Will Smith.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Lilly married Alisa Blasingame in 1991. In 2016, Lilly mentioned having a boyfriend. In 2019, she said Mickey Ray Mahoney became her partner and moved in with her. Mahoney is an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a trans man.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Lana married Thea Bloom in 1993. Following the release of "The Matrix", Lana began attending the Los Angeles BDSM club The Dungeon, where she met Karin Winslow, who worked there as a dominatrix under the name Ilsa Strix. Bloom divorced Lana in 2002 after discovering the relationship. Lana and Karin made their first public appearance together at the premier of "The Matrix Reloaded" in 2003, and married in 2009. Winslow is a board member of the Chicago House and Social Service Agency.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Raised by a "hardcore atheist" father and an "ex-Catholic turned Shamanist" mother, the duo once described their religious beliefs as non-denominational. Lana is a vegetarian. During the Democratic Party presidential primaries of 2016, "The Advocate" posted a video message of Lana talking about why she would be supporting Bernie Sanders.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Rumors that Lana Wachowski was transitioning spread in the early 2000s, though neither sister spoke directly on the subject at the time. In 2003, "Gothamist" reported the possible transition. In a 2007 interview, Joel Silver, the producer of numerous Wachowski films, said that the rumors concerning the transition were "all untrue", saying that "they just don't do interviews, so people make things up." Crew members working on "Speed Racer" said similar things.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Lana publicly revealed her transition after "Speed Racer"s release in 2008 and by at least December 2010, after which trade magazines and newspapers referred to her as "Lana Wachowski", and to the duo as "Andy and Lana Wachowski". On some documents her name is shown as Laurenca Wachowski. In July 2012, Lana made her first public appearance after transitioning, in a video discussing the creative process behind "Cloud Atlas". Lana is the first major Hollywood director to come out as transgender.


title: The Wachowskis

text: In a September 2012 interview with Aleksandar Hemon of "The New Yorker", Lana described an incident in third grade at Catholic School when she was hesitant to join the boys' line and unconsciously accepted herself as belonging to the girls'.


title: The Wachowskis

text: In October 2012, Lana Wachowski received the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award. In her acceptance speech, she revealed that once during her youth, she had considered suicide because of her feelings of confusion about her gender identity. Her acceptance speech was one of the longest public appearances by either of the reclusive sisters. Lana said that, although she and Lilly had not publicly commented on her transitioning during the previous decade, it was not because she was ashamed of it, nor had she kept it a secret from her family and friends. Rather, she stated, the two are generally shy about the news media and prefer to maintain their privacy. Comparing media exposure to losing one's virginity as an irreversible event that only happens once, the Wachowskis had tried to stay out of the public eye. They feared losing their privacy and the ability to go to public places without being noticed and harassed as celebrities.


title: The Wachowskis

text: There are some things we do for ourselves, but there are some things we do for others. I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I couldn't find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others. If I can be that person for someone else, then the sacrifice of my private civic life may have value.


title: The Wachowskis

text: In February 2014, Lana received the Freedom Award from Equality Illinois at their annual gala in Chicago.


title: The Wachowskis

text: In March 2016, Lilly Wachowski also came out as a transgender woman, issuing a statement to the "Windy City Times" after a visit from a reporter from the "Daily Mail" newspaper who had attempted to get an interview with her about it. In that article, she said, "I am one of the lucky ones. Having the support of my family and the means to afford doctors and therapists has given me the chance to actually survive this process. Transgender people without support, means and privilege do not have this luxury. And many do not survive."


title: The Wachowskis

text: Her first public appearance since beginning transitioning was a few weeks later, at the 27th GLAAD Media Awards, where she accepted an award for her Netflix series "Sense8" for Outstanding Drama Series. She said, "I didn't feel obligated to be here, but I wanted to do something. And it's serendipitous that the awards were a couple of weeks later and our show was up for an award."


title: The Wachowskis

text: The Wachowskis are self-proclaimed gamers. As teens, they spent their weekends in the attic playing "Dungeons & Dragons". They liken the process of their gaming sessions to their process of filmmaking. Along with some of their friends, they wrote a 350-page role-playing game of their own called "High Adventure".


title: The Wachowskis

text: On the video game front, they had been exchanging letters with Hideo Kojima and met him during a "Famitsu" interview in late 1999. "Metal Gear Solid" was the first video game they played after finishing work on "The Matrix". Candidates for an adaptation of the first "Matrix" movie to video game form included Kojima, Bungie and Shiny Entertainment, whose "Messiah" PC game impressed them. Shiny's David Perry, who ultimately had his company develop and collaborate with them on the "Enter the Matrix" and "" video games, was impressed with their familiarity with the medium; this proved helpful during development. The Wachowskis owned both a PlayStation 2 and Xbox video game console and played several games such as "Splinter Cell" and "Halo 2". They reportedly destroyed their Xbox during a "Halo" deathmatch. Actor Collin Chou recounts an instance of visiting their office and finding them playing video games on the floor. Lilly is a fan of the "Death Jr." PlayStation Portable game.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Asked about their feelings about turning the tightly controlled "Matrix" saga to the unpredictable form of an MMORPG with "The Matrix Online", the duo appeared enthusiastic about the nature and possibilities of video games:


title: The Wachowskis

text: "The Art of the Matrix" book credits them for including their screenplay and additional art. The Wachowskis also wrote an introduction to the 2005 published "Vol. 2: Tag" trade paperback of "Ex Machina" comic book, being big fans of it. Additionally Lana Wachowski wrote the introduction to the 2012 published "No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics" collection of LGBTQ comic book stories.


title: The Wachowskis

text: Additionally classifying themselves as "lifelong rabid Bulls fans" they created a revamped introductory animation for Chicago Bulls to open the 2006–2007 regular season.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman has frequently worked with directors Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant, with achievements including the scores of 17 Burton films such as "Batman", "Batman Returns", "Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland", and "Dumbo"; Raimi's "Darkman" (1990), "A Simple Plan" (1998), "Spider-Man", "Spider-Man 2", "Oz the Great and Powerful", and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"; and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films "Good Will Hunting" and "Milk". He wrote music for all of the "Men in Black" and "Fifty Shades of Grey" franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and the themes for the popular television series "Desperate Housewives" and "The Simpsons".


title: Danny Elfman

text: Among his honors are four Oscar nominations, two Emmy Awards, a Grammy, seven Saturn Awards for Best Music, the 2002 Richard Kirk Award, the 2015 Disney Legend Award, the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2017, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman was born on May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish family of Polish-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent. He is a son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher, and the brother of actor, musician, and journalist Richard Elfman. Elfman was raised in a racially mixed affluent community in Baldwin Hills, California, where he spent much of his time at the local movie theater discovering classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror films and first noticed the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman. Elfman has admitted to fabricating stories about his past out of boredom, including a false birthplace of Amarillo, Texas, and parents in the United States Air Force.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In his early school days, Elfman exhibited an aptitude for science with almost no interest in music, and was even rejected from elementary school orchestra "for having no propensity for music." This would change when he switched high schools in the late 1960s and fell in with a musical crowd, who introduced him to early jazz and the work of Stravinsky and his 20th-century contemporaries.


title: Danny Elfman

text: After finishing high school early with plans to travel the world, Elfman followed his brother Richard to France, where he performed violin with Jérôme Savary's Le Grand Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theater group. He then embarked on a ten-month, self-guided tour through Africa, busking and collecting a range of West African percussion instruments until a series of illnesses forced him to return home. At this time, Richard was forming a new musical theater group in Los Angeles.


title: Danny Elfman

text: While Elfman was never officially a student at CalArts, Nyoman Wenten, an instructor in the Indonesian music department, encouraged him to attend classes and perform music there for two years.


title: Danny Elfman

text: After returning to Los Angeles from Africa in the early 1970s, Elfman was asked by his brother Richard to serve as musical director of his street theatre performance art troupe The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Elfman was tasked with adapting and arranging 1920s and 1930s jazz and big band music by artists such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and Josephine Baker for the ensemble, which consisted of up to 15 performers playing upwards of 30 instruments. He also composed original pieces and helped build instruments unique for the group, including an aluminum gamelan, the 'Schlitz celeste' made from tuned beer cans, and a "junkyard orchestra" built from car parts and trash cans.


title: Danny Elfman

text: The Mystic Knights performed on the street and in nightclubs throughout Los Angeles until Richard left in 1979 to pursue filmmaking. As a send-off to the group's original concept, Richard produced the film "Forbidden Zone" based on the Mystic Knights' stage performances. Elfman composed the songs and his first score for the film, and appeared as the character Satan, who performs a reworked version of Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher."


title: Danny Elfman

text: Before the release of "Forbidden Zone", Elfman took over the Mystic Knights as lead singer-songwriter in 1979. He paired the group down to eight players to record and tour as a ska-influenced new wave band under the name to Oingo Boingo. Their biggest success among eight studio albums penned by Elfman was 1985's "Dead Man's Party", featuring the hit song "Weird Science" from the movie of the same name. The band also appeared performing their single "Dead Man's Party" in the 1986 movie "Back to School", for which Elfman also composed the score. Elfman shifted the band to a more guitar-oriented rock sound in the late 1980s, which continued through their last album "Boingo" in 1994.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Citing permanent hearing damage from performing live and conflicts with his film-scoring career, Elfman retired Oingo Boingo in 1995 with a series of five sold-out final concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre ending on Halloween night. On October 31, 2015, Elfman and Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek performed the song "Dead Man's Party" with an orchestra as an encore to a live-to-film concert of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" score at the Hollywood Bowl. Elfman told the audience the performance was "20 years to the day" of Oingo Boingo's retirement.


title: Danny Elfman

text: As fans of Oingo Boingo, Tim Burton and Paul Reubens invited Elfman to write the score for their first feature film "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" in 1985. Elfman was initially apprehensive because of his lack of formal training and having never scored a studio feature, but after Burton accepted his initial demo of the title music, and with orchestration assistance from Oingo Boingo guitarist and arranger Steve Bartek, Elfman completed the score to great effect, paying homage to influential film composers Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann. Elfman described the first time he heard his music played by a full orchestra as one of the most thrilling experiences of his life.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Following "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", Elfman scored a string of comedies in the late 1980s, including "Back to School" starring Rodney Dangerfield, Burton's "Beetlejuice" and the Bill Murray vehicle "Scrooged". Non-comedy work included the all-synth score to Emilio Estevez's crime drama "Wisdom" and the big band, blues-infused music for Martin Brest's buddy cop action film "Midnight Run".


title: Danny Elfman

text: In 1989, Elfman's influential, Grammy-winning score for Burton's "Batman" marked a major stylistic shift to dark, densely orchestrated music in the romantic idiom. This continued in his scores for Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy", Sam Raimi's "Darkman" and Clive Barker's "Nightbreed", all released in 1990.


title: Danny Elfman

text: With "Batman", Elfman firmly established a career-spanning relationship with Burton, scoring all but three of the director's major studio releases. Highlights include "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Batman Returns" (1992), "Sleepy Hollow" (1999), "Big Fish" (2003) and "Alice in Wonderland" (2010). In 1993, Elfman wrote the score and ten songs for the Burton-produced stop motion animated film "The Nightmare Before Christmas", directed by Henry Selick, and also provided the singing voice for main character Jack Skellington, as well as the voices for secondary characters Barrel, the Clown with the Tear-Away Face and others. In 2005, he wrote the score and songs for Burton's "Corpse Bride" and provided the voice of the character of Bonejangles, and provided the score, songs and Oompa-Loompa vocals for Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" that same year.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In addition to frequent collaborations with Burton, Raimi and Gus Van Sant, Elfman has worked with esteemed directors such as Brian De Palma, Peter Jackson, Joss Whedon, Errol Morris, Ang Lee, Richard Donner, Guillermo del Toro, David O. Russell, Taylor Hackford, Jon Amiel, Joe Johnston, and Barry Sonnenfeld. His scores for Sonnenfeld's "Men in Black", Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting" and "Milk", and Burton's "Big Fish" all received Academy Award nominations.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Since the mid-1990s, Elfman expanded his craft to a range of genres, including thrillers ("Dolores Claiborne", "A Simple Plan", "The Kingdom, The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window"), dramas ("Sommersby", "A Civil Action", "Hitchcock"), indies ("Freeway", "Silver Linings Playbook", "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, White Noise"), family ("Flubber", "Charlotte's Web", "Frankenweenie", "Goosebumps, Dolittle"), documentary ("Standard Operating Procedure", "The Unknown Known"), and horror ("Red Dragon", "The Wolfman"), as well as entries in his well-established areas of horror comedy ("The Frighteners", "Mars Attacks!", "Dark Shadows") and comic book-inspired action films ("Hulk", "Wanted", "").


title: Danny Elfman

text: Among his franchise work, Elfman composed the scores for four "Men in Black" films (1997–2019) and three "Fifty Shades of Grey" films (2015–2018). In 1996, he scored the first film in the , adapting themes for the original television series by Lalo Schifrin as well as composing his own. Elfman scored Raimi's "Spider-Man" in 2002 and "Spider-Man 2" in 2004, themes and selections from which were used for Raimi's "Spider-Man 3", scored by Christopher Young. Elfman's "Spider-Man" theme was incorporated into the MCU film "" composed by Michael Giacchino.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe by providing additional music an 2015's "," receiving composer credit with Brian Tyler. Elfman also cored MCU's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" in 2022, utilizing Giacchino's theme to the original "Doctor Strange" film, as well as themes from WandaVision and , and music from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Bach's Toccata and Fugue.


title: Danny Elfman

text: For several high-profile sequel and reboot projects in the 2010s, Elfman incorporated established musical themes with his own original thematic material, including the DC Extended Universe's "Justice League", "The Grinch," "Dumbo" and .


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman was featured in the 2016 documentary "Score", in which he appeared among over 50 film composers to discuss the craft of movie music and influential figures in the business.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman's first piece of original concert music, "Serenada Schizophrana", was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, who premiered the piece on February 23, 2005, at Carnegie Hall. Subsequent concert works include his first "Violin Concerto "Eleven Eleven"", co-commissioned by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Live at Stanford University, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which premiered at Smetana Hall in Prague on June 21, 2017, with Sandy Cameron on violin and John Mauceri conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra; the "Piano Quartet", co-commissioned by the Lied Center for Performing Arts University of Nebraska and the Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, which premiered February 6, 2018, in Lincoln, Nebraska; and the "Percussion Quartet", commissioned by Third Coast Percussion and premiered at the Philip Glass Days And Nights Festival in Big Sur on October 10, 2019.


title: Danny Elfman

text: 2022 saw the first performances of three concert works. Elfman's Cello Concerto composed Gautier Capucon premiered by the Vienna Symphony in March, with subsequent performances by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in May and The San Francisco Symphony US premiere in November Elfman's Percussion Concerto for Colin Currie premiered at tLondon's Royal Festival Hall with London Philharmonic Orchestra, and was later performed at Soka University of America in California, with Pacific Symphony. His "Wunderkammer", a commission from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, toured the UK in summer 2022, culminating in a performance in London's Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, with national radio and TV broadcasts.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In 2008, Elfman accepted his first commission for the stage, composing the music for Twyla Tharp's "Rabbit and Rogue" ballet, co-commissioned by American Ballet Theatre and Orange County Performing Arts Center and premiering on June 3, 2008, at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center. Other works for stage include the music for Cirque Du Soleil's "Iris" in 2011, and incidental music for the Broadway production of Taylor Mac's "" in 2019.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In October 2013, Elfman returned to the stage for the first time since his band Oingo Boingo disbanded to sing a handful of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" songs as part of the concert "Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton", featuring suites of music from 15 Tim Burton films newly arranged by Elfman. The concert has since toured internationally and has played in Japan, Australia, Mexico and throughout Europe and the United States. Since 2015, Elfman has appeared regularly in a Hollywood Bowl Halloween concert featuring full orchestra performing the "Nightmare Before Christmas" score live to the film projection.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman made his Coachella debut on April 16, 2022, with "Danny Elfman: From Boingo to ‘Batman’ to ‘Big Mess’ to Beyond!" The concert, postponed from Coachella 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, featured Elfman's film and television music arranged for band, orchestra and choir, as well as songs from his solo album "Big Mess" and new arrangements of songs from his Oingo Boingo catalogue. Conducted by Steve Bartek, and featuring Elfman (vocals, guitar, percussion), Wes Borland (guitar), Stu Brooks (bass), Nili Brosh (guitar), and Josh Freese (drums), the concert was expanded for two shows Halloween weekend 2022 at the Hollywood Bowl.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In addition to his music for film, Elfman also penned themes for the television series "The Simpsons", "Tales from the Crypt", "The Flash" and "Desperate Housewives", which won Elfman his first Emmy. He also adapted his original themes for the animated versions of "" and "Beetlejuice". Occasional forays into serial television include episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Amazing Stories" and Pee-wee's Playhouse, the miniseries "When We Rise" co-composed with Chris Bacon, and themes for the Netflix series Wednesday.


title: Danny Elfman

text: He has composed music for animated shorts, including Sally Cruikshank's "Face Like A Frog" and Tim Burton's "Stainboy" internet series.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman provided background music for Luigi Serafini's solo exhibition "il Teatro della Pittura" at the Fondazione Mudima di Milano in Milan, Italy in 1998 and for the "Tim Burton" exhibition at MoMA in 2009.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In the 1990s, Elfman composed music for advertising campaigns for Nike, Nissan and Lincoln-Mercury, and in 2002 wrote the music for Honda's "Power of Dreams" advertising campaign, which was the first cinema commercial to be shot in the IMAX format.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In 2013 he composed the music and provided the English-language vocals for the Hong Kong Disneyland attraction Mystic Manor.


title: Danny Elfman

text: On October 31, 2019, the MasterClass online educational series released "Making Music out of Chaos," presenting 21 compositional and career lessons from Elfman's four decades of experience primarily in the film industry.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman scored the 10-minute video "Joe Biden," which introduced Joe Biden's acceptance of the presidential candidacy nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In October 2020, Elfman released the single, "Happy," on Anti- Records and Epitaph Records. From January 2021 on the eleventh day of each month, he released five subsequent singles "Sorry", "Love In The Time of COVID", "Kick Me", "True", and a reworking the Oingo Boingo song “Insects” from the album "Nothing to Fear". This culminated with the release of the double album "Big Mess" on June 11. Featuring 18 original songs this was Elfman's first solo studio album since 1984's "So-Lo".


title: Danny Elfman

text: On August 11, 2021, Elfman released a remix of “True” with lead vocals shared between Elfman and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. A year later, Elfman released "Bigger Messier", a compilation of 23 remixes of songs on the album "Big Mess" by artists including Reznor, Iggy Pop, Blixa Bargeld, Squarepusher, Boy Harsher and more.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman has said his major influences are composers from Hollywood's Golden Age, such as Bernard Herrmann, Dimitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner, David Tamkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Carl Stalling; 20th century classical composers Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Carl Orff; and jazz, experimental and minimalist composers Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington, Harry Partch, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich. Influences on specific scores include Erik Satie ("Forbidden Zone"), Nino Rota ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure"), George Gershwin ("Dick Tracy"), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ("Edward Scissorhands"), and Jimi Hendrix ("Dead Presidents"). Though not considered direct influences "per se", Elfman has discussed his respect and admiration for film composers Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Newman, Alexandre Desplat and John Williams, as well as classical composer John Adams.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Though many believe Richard Wagner informed his influential score to "Batman", Elfman has said it was more likely from Wagner's influence on classic film composers such as Herrmann, Steiner, Waxman and Korngold, as he was unfamiliar with Wagner's work at the time.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman counts Herrmann as his biggest influence, and has said hearing Herrmann's score to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" when he was a child was the first time he recognized film music as a cinematic art form and realized the powerful contribution a composer makes to the movies. Pastiche of Herrmann's music can be heard in Elfman's "Pee-wee's Big Adventure", especially the cues "Stolen Bike" and "Clown Dream", which directly reference Herrmann's music from "Psycho" and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" respectively. His score to "Batman" makes more subtle nods to Herrmann's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Vertigo", and more integral homage can be heard in later scores for "Mars Attacks!" and "Hitchcock", as well as the "Blue Strings" movement of his first concert work "Serenada Schizophrana".


title: Danny Elfman

text: While Elfman is primarily known for writing large-scale orchestral works in the romantic, 20th century and Hollywood Golden Age film score traditions, his compositions have used a wide range of idioms, including rock and blues ("Midnight Run, Hot to Trot"), big band and jazz ("Dick Tracy", "Chicago"), operetta ("The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Corpse Bride"), funk and hip hop ("Dead Presidents", "Notorious"), folk and indie rock ("Taking Woodstock", "Silver Linings Playbook"), Americana ("Article 99", "Sommersby", "Big Fish)," minimalism ("Good Will Hunting", "Standard Operating Procedure", "The Unknown Known"), and atonal or experimental ("Freeway", "A Simple Plan, The Girl on the Train").


title: Danny Elfman

text: Given his appreciation and study of world music and his vast collection of instruments from non-Western cultures, Elfman will often use traditional instruments in his scores when there is an international setting, such as African percussion for "Instinct," the oud for "The Kingdom" set in Saudi Arabia, and pan flute for "Proof of Life" set in South America.


title: Danny Elfman

text: When working on films with established musical identifiers, Elfman will often incorporate original themes in addition to his own thematic material. Examples include Lalo Schifrin's main theme and "The Plot" from the original for ""; John Williams' theme for "Superman", the Hans Zimmer/Junkie XL theme for "Wonder Woman" and his own original "Batman" theme for "Justice League;" the "Welcome Christmas" song from the 1966 "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" for "The Grinch"; and "Casey Junior," "Pink Elephants on Parade," and "When I See an Elephant Fly" from Disney's original 1941 animated film for "Dumbo".


title: Danny Elfman

text: The songs for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride" were influenced by Kurt Weill, Gilbert and Sullivan and early Rodgers and Hammerstein. At the request of Tim Burton, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" songs drew inspiration from Bollywood, the Mamas and the Papas, ABBA, Queen, and Earth, Wind & Fire individually.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman's work in pop music and specifically as songwriter for Oingo Boingo was influenced by the Specials, Madness, the Selecter, Devo, Fun Boy Three, and XTC.


title: Danny Elfman

text: For his film scores, Elfman draws musical inspiration almost exclusively from viewing a cut of the film, and occasionally from visits to the set while the film is in production (he wrote and orchestrated his theme for "Batman" on an airplane to Los Angeles after visiting the set in London). While he prefers not to work from script, story or concept, exceptions include "The Nightmare Before Christmas," for which ten songs needed to be written in advance of filmmaking, and "Dumbo," for which he composed the main theme before filming began.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Once a rough cut of the film is ready, Elfman and the director have a spotting session to decide where to place music in the film, the emotional undercurrents of each scene, and overall tone. Elfman then spends a few weeks of free composition and experimentation to begin working out thematic material and to develop sounds and the harmonic pallette.


title: Danny Elfman

text: When he has received approval on initial material from the filmmakers, Elfman begins to compose anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes of music cue-by-cue. He says two of the most important things to capture at this point are the tone of each scene and editorial rhythm. Next to thematic development, action set pieces tend to take Elfman the most time given the complexity of timing music to action. One element where Elfman's compositional process deviates from most film composers is that he will often compose three or more often radically different versions of a single cue to give the director more options for musicalizing a scene.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Early in his career, he wrote out his scores using pencil, but has composed largely digitally since the mid-1990s.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Before recording the score, he demos each cue by mocking orchestral and choral parts on synthesizer to get approval from the director. Once approved, he provides a detailed, multi-line sketch of his composition to his lead orchestrator Steve Bartek, who ensures the sketches are appropriately broken down for sections of the orchestra (i.e. string, brass woodwind, some percussion), choir (SATB) and individual players.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman also typically samples or records his own percussion and guitar playing to overlay with live orchestra. More than half of some scores feature Elfman's performance, including "Dead Presidents", "", "Planet of the Apes", "The Kingdom", "The Girl on the Train" and "The Circle."


title: Danny Elfman

text: To produce the score, Elfman rents a recording studio and hires a conductor and orchestra/choir. He oversees the recording from the control booth so that he can troubleshoot with the film's director and recording engineers. The final recording is given to the film's sound department to mix with dialogue and sound effects for the film's complete soundtrack. Elfman will usually do a separate mix of select cues for an album presentation of the score, and has produced nearly 100 to date.


title: Danny Elfman

text: On the occasion that there are compressed deadlines or in the event he is not available to rescore or adapt his music if there are major edits to the film after the score's completion, Elfman will hire additional composers to work on small cues or sections of cues, adapting his existing material or themes. Examples include Jonathan Sheffer on "Darkman", David Buckley on the "Fifty Shades of Grey" films, and Pinar Toprak on "Justice League." Since the 1990s, Elfman has occasionally co-composed music or shared music writing credit (e.g."When We Rise", "Spy Kids", ", "), or written themes that are then used or adapted by other composers, including Jonathan Sheffer ("Pure Luck"), Steve Bartek ("Novacaine"), John Debney ("Heartbreakers)," Deborah Lurie ("9"), and the Newton Brothers ("Before I Wake").


title: Danny Elfman

text: During all his career, Elfman only once collaborated with another artist – meaning writing music together: it was with Siouxsie and the Banshees on the song "Face to Face" for "Batman Returns" in 1992. She created the foundation of the song, "and then I would take it and I would add stuff. And send it back to her". It was a long distance collaboration as the studio needed the song very quickly. Elfman literally saw himself as a non-collaborator. "I’m not used to collaborating at all with anybody. I did one track with Siouxsie and the Banshees" "but that’s it. I’ve always been in my own bubble, and that bubble has been very fertile".


title: Danny Elfman

text: In the liner notes for the 2006 CD recording of his first concert work "Serenada Schizophrana", Elfman wrote: "I began composing several dozen short improvisational compositions, maybe a minute each. Slowly, some of them began to develop themselves until finally I had six separate movements that, in some abstract, absurd way, felt connected."


title: Danny Elfman

text: To create the cadenzas for his violin concerto "Eleven Eleven", Elfman collaborated with soloist Sandy Cameron, for whom the piece was written.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman often incorporates choral or vocal arrangements into his film scores, notably the use of women's and children's choirs ("Scrooged", "Nightbreed, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns", "Sleepy Hollow, Alice in Wonderland", "The Grinch"), and solo voice or vocal effects ("Beetlejuice", "Mars Attacks!", "Men in Black II", "Flubber", "Nacho Libre", "Iris", "Dark Shadows", "The Girl on the Train"). Evoking the "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana", he set made-up, Latin-sounding text for SATB choir in standout cue "Descent into Mystery" from "Batman."


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman also adds his own vocals into compositions in much the same way he mixes his percussion and guitar performances into orchestral arrangements. Prominent use can be heard in the scores for "To Die For" (sung with director Gus Van Sant, credited to "Little Gus and the Suzettes"), "Silver Linings Playbook", and his music for the Hong Kong Disneyland ride Mystic Manor. He provided the singing voice for characters in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride" in addition to composing the scores and songs"," and can be heard singing the "Day-O" call in the style of Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song" in the first bars of the "Beetlejuice" main title.


title: Danny Elfman

text: For Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Elfman set Roald Dahl's text for the Oompa-Loompa characters as four stylistically distinct songs: the Bollywood-influenced "Augustus Gloop," the funk-infused "Violet Beauregarde," the psychedelic pop stylings of "Veruca Salt," and the baroque rock of "Mike Teevee." For all songs in the film, Elfman sang, manipulated and mixed several layers of his vocals to create the singing voices and harmonies of the Oompa Loompas, and incorporated his vocals into non-song score tracks that featured the characters, including "Loompa Land," "Chocolate River," "The Boat Arrives," and "The River Cruise."


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman typically writes the lyrics to songs he has composed for movies. He employs song structures from Tin Pan Alley and early musical theatre composers (32-bar form), and pop and rock of the 1950s and 1960s (verse-chorus). As his songs serve to advance the plot and develop characters, lyrics reflect storylines and imagery specific to the film and express the inner life of characters.


title: Danny Elfman

text: He wrote the lyrics and music for ten songs featured in the stop-motion musical "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Drawing from Tim Burton's parody poem of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and concept drawings, Elfman wrote each song in consultation with Burton before the film even had a script. These include the full-cast songs "This Is Halloween," "Town Meeting Song," and "Making Christmas"; four songs for the main character Jack Skellington "Jack's Lament," "What's This," "Jack's Obsession," and "Poor Jack" all sung by Elfman; and the other character songs "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," "Oogie Boogie's Song," and "Sally's Song." An eleventh song, "Finale/Reprise," reworks lyrics from the songs "This Is Halloween," "What's This" and "Sally's Song" for the film's ending. Though uncredited, Burton contributed some lyrics to "Nightmare", including the line "Perhaps it's the head that I found in the lake" in "Town Meeting Song."


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman composed five songs for Burton's "Corpse Bride": "According to Plan" with lyrics co-written by screenwriter John August; "Remains of the Day," which he sung as the character Bonejangles, and "Tears To Shed," both with additional lyrics by August, and "The Wedding Song" credited solely to Elfman. The song "Erased" was not used in the final film.


title: Danny Elfman

text: He wrote the lyrics to "Lullaby" from "Charlotte's Web", the rock track "The Little Things" from "Wanted" which he also sang in English and Russian, and "Alice's Theme" from "Alice in Wonderland". Elfman co-wrote the lyrics to "Twice the Love" from "Big Fish" and the "Wonka's Welcome Song" for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with John August.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman wrote the lyrics to all of Oingo Boingo's original songs 1979–1994 and has made residuals on the titular two-word opening phrase sung in his "The Simpsons" theme since the series first aired in 1989.


title: Danny Elfman

text: As a teenager, Elfman dated his classmate Kim Gordon, who would later become one of the members of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has two daughters, Lola and Mali, from his marriage to Geri Eisenmenger. Mali is a film producer and actress. Elfman and Mali collaborated on her 2011 film "Do Not Disturb". On November 29, 2003, Elfman married actress Bridget Fonda. They have a son, Oliver. In 1998, Elfman scored "A Simple Plan", starring Fonda. He is the uncle of actor Bodhi Elfman, who is married to actress Jenna Elfman. Elfman has been an atheist since the age of 11 or 12. According to him, he is a cynicologist.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Describing his politics during the 1980s, Elfman said, "I'm not a doomist. My attitude is always to be critical of what's around you, but not ever to forget how lucky we are. I've traveled around the world. I left thinking I was a revolutionary. I came back real right-wing patriotic. Since then, I've kind of mellowed in between." Several of his songs written for Oingo Boingo during this period satirized social politics, although Elfman stated his message was to "question, resist, challenge" and that his songs were not aligned to any one political agenda.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In 2008, Elfman expressed support for Barack Obama. For the 2020 Democratic National Convention, he scored the biographical video played ahead of Joe Biden's acceptance of the presidential nomination in the 2020 United States elections. In a series of posts on his Instagram page discussing the video, Elfman criticized Donald Trump, Richard Nixon, and the electoral college, and linked to several voter resources.


title: Danny Elfman

text: During his 18 years with Oingo Boingo, Elfman developed significant hearing damage as a result of the continuous exposure to the high noise levels involved in performing in a rock band. Afraid of worsening his condition, he decided to leave the band, saying that he would never return to that kind of performance. His impairment was so bad that he could not "even sit in a loud restaurant or bar anymore." However, he found performing in front of orchestras more tolerable, and returned several times to reprise his live performance of Jack Skellington.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Since "The Simpsons"' second annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode aired in 1991, launching "scary names" tradition in the opening and closing titles, Elfman has been alternately credited for the theme music as "Red Wolf Elfman," "Danny Skellingelfman," "Li'l Leakin Brain Elfman," "Boris Elfmonivich," "Danny Elfblood," "Danny 'Hell'fman," "The Bloody Elf," "Danny Elfbones," "Elfmunster" and "Daniel Beilzebelsman."


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman's composition "Clown Dream" from "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" is used in the video game "Grand Theft Auto V" and has often been used as the opening music for Primus concerts.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In the 2007 sixth season "Star Wars" parody "Blue Harvest", "Family Guy" lampooned Elfman's orchestral style. A scene shows Elfman replacing an incinerated John Williams to conduct a full orchestra playing the score, only to be decapitated by a lightsaber after conducting a few bars of oom-pah music.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Episode five of the 14th season of "South Park" in 2010 criticized Tim Burton for using the "same" music in all his films, referring to Elfman's scores.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In October 2016, Elfman produced a video clip for Funny or Die with original "horror" music composed to footage of Donald Trump pacing around Hillary Clinton at the second United States presidential election debates, 2016.


title: Danny Elfman

text: In 2019, selections from Elfman's "Midnight Run" score were used in the third season of Netflix's "Stranger Things," including "Stairway Chase" in episodes 5 and 6, and "Wild Ride" and "Package Deal" in episode 6.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Christina Aguilera revealed that Elfman's music inspired her Las Vegas concert residency The Xperience.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Elfman's scores for "Batman" and "Edward Scissorhands" were nominated for AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.


title: Danny Elfman

text: Including commercial recordings of his film scores and the Oingo Boingo discography, Elfman has produced over 100 albums as of 2019.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. Banksy no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but his public "installations" are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on. Much of his work can be classified as temporary art. A small number of Banksy's works are officially, non-publicly, sold through an agency created by Banksy named Pest Control. Banksy's documentary film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (2010) made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the film. In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy's name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of "The Guardian", Banksy is described as "white, 28, scruffy casual—jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of The Streets." Banksy began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime. According to Hattenstone, "anonymity is vital to him because graffiti is illegal". Banksy reportedly lived in Easton, Bristol during the late 1990s, before moving to London around 2000.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy is commonly believed to be Robin Gunningham, as first identified by "The Mail on Sunday" in 2008, born on 28 July 1973 in Yate, from Bristol. Several of Gunningham's associates and former schoolmates at Bristol Cathedral School have corroborated this, and in 2016, a study by researchers at the Queen Mary University of London using geographic profiling found that the incidence of Banksy's works correlated with the known movements of Gunningham. According to "The Sunday Times", Gunningham began employing the name Robin Banks, which eventually became Banksy. Two cassette sleeves featuring his art work from 1993, for the Bristol band Mother Samosa, exist with his signature. In June 2017, DJ Goldie referred to Banksy as "Rob".


title: Banksy

text: In October 2014, an internet hoax circulated that Banksy had been arrested and his identity revealed.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in 1990–1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with two other artists known as Kato and Tes. He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene with Nick Walker, Inkie and 3D. During this time he met Bristol photographer Steve Lazarides, who began selling Banksy's work, later becoming his agent. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a work. He claims he changed to stencilling while hiding from the police under a rubbish lorry, when he noticed the stencilled serial number and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. He was the goalkeeper for the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls football team in the 1990s, and toured with the club to Mexico in 2001. Banksy's first known large wall mural was "The Mild Mild West" painted in 1997 to cover advertising of a former solicitors' office on Stokes Croft in Bristol. It depicts a teddy bear lobbing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.


title: Banksy

text: In July 2011 one of Banksy's early works, "Gorilla in a Pink Mask", which had been a prominent landmark on the exterior wall of a former social club in Eastville for over ten years, was unwittingly painted over after the premises became a Muslim cultural centre.


title: Banksy

text: On 19 July 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles exhibition debuted at 33 Gallery, a tiny Silver Lake venue owned by Frank Sosa and was on view until 18 August. The exhibition, entitled "Existencilism", ""an Exhibition of Art, Lies and Deviousness"" was curated by 33 Gallery, Malathion LA's Chris Vargas, Funk Lazy Promotions' Grace Jehan, and B+. The flyer of the exhibition indicates an opening reception was followed by a performance by Money Mark with DJ's Jun, AL Jackson, Rhettmatic, J.Rocc, Coleman. Some of the paintings exhibited included "Smiley Copper H" (2002), "Leopard and Barcode" (2002), "Bomb Hugger" (2002), and "Love is in the Air" (2002).


title: Banksy

text: In 2003, at an exhibition called "Turf War", held in a London warehouse, Banksy painted on animals. At the time he gave one of his very few interviews, to the BBC's Nigel Wrench. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest. An example of his subverted paintings is Monet's "Water Lily Pond", adapted to include urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters; another is Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks", redrawn to show that the characters are looking at a British football hooligan, dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the café. These oil paintings were shown at a twelve-day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy, along with Shepard Fairey, Dmote, and others, created work at a warehouse exhibition in Alexandria, Sydney, for Semi-Permanent in 2003. Approximately 1,500 people attended.


title: Banksy

text: In August 2004, Banksy produced a quantity of spoof British £10 notes replacing the picture of the Queen's head with Diana, Princess of Wales's head and changing the text "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England". Someone threw a large wad of these into a crowd at Notting Hill Carnival that year, which some recipients then tried to spend in local shops. These notes were also given with invitations to a Santa's Ghetto exhibition by Pictures on Walls. The individual notes have since been selling on eBay. A wad of the notes was also thrown over a fence and into the crowd near the "NME" signing tent at the Reading Festival. A limited run of 50 signed posters containing ten uncut notes was also produced and sold by Pictures on Walls for £100 each to commemorate the death of Princess Diana. One of these sold in October 2007 at Bonhams auction house in London for £24,000.


title: Banksy

text: The reproduction of images of the banknotes classifies as a criminal offence (s.18 Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981). In 2016, the American Numismatic Society received an email from a Reproductions Officer at the Bank of England, which brought attention to the illegality of publishing photos of the banknotes on their website without prior permission. The Bank of England holds the copyright over all its banknotes.


title: Banksy

text: Also in 2004, Banksy created a limited edition screenprint titled "Napalm (Can't Beat That Feeling)." In the print, Banksy appropriated the image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a Vietnamese girl who appeared in the iconic 1972 photograph The Terror of War by Nick Ut. "Napalm" shows the image of Kim Phuc as seen in the original photo, but no longer within the tragic war setting. Instead, he situates the young girl against an empty background, still screaming, but now accompanied by Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse. The two characters hold her hands as they cheerfully gesture to an invisible audience, seemingly oblivious to the terrified girl. The image of Kim Phuc is flat, grainy and monochromatic; in most of the prints, Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse are yellow. In a few limited prints, the corporate characters wear pink or orange. Banksy produced 150 signed and 500 unsigned copies of "Napalm".


title: Banksy

text: In August 2005, Banksy, on a trip to the Palestinian territories, created nine images on the Israeli West Bank wall.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy held an exhibition called "Barely Legal", billed as a "three-day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles, on the weekend of 16 September 2006. The exhibition featured a live "elephant in a room", painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern, which, according to leaflets handed out at the exhibition, was intended to draw attention to the issue of world poverty. Although the Animal Services Department had issued a permit for the elephant, after complaints from animal rights activists, the elephant appeared unpainted on the final day. Its owners rejected claims of mistreatment and said that the elephant had done "many, many movies. She's used to makeup." Banksy also made artwork displaying Queen Victoria as a lesbian and satirical pieces that incorporated art made by Andy Warhol and Leonardo da Vinci.


title: Banksy

text: After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000, on 19 October 2006, a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times their estimated price. Their stencil of a green "Mona Lisa" with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction.


title: Banksy

text: In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy effect", to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success.


title: Banksy

text: On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for "Bombing Middle England". Two of his other graffiti works, "Girl with Balloon" and "Bomb Hugger", sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices. The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices: "Ballerina with Action Man Parts" reached £96,000; "Glory" sold for £72,000; "Untitled (2004)" sold for £33,600; all significantly above price estimates. To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit."


title: Banksy

text: In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural that comes with a house attached.


title: Banksy

text: In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino's film "Pulp Fiction" (1994), featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the graffiti created "a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime" and their staff are "professional cleaners not professional art critics". Banksy painted the same site again and, initially, the actors were portrayed as holding real guns instead of bananas, but they were adorned with banana costumes. Sometime later, Banksy made a tribute artwork over this second "Pulp Fiction" work. The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist Ozone who, along with fellow artist Wants, was hit by an underground train in Barking, east London on 12 January 2007. Banksy depicted an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest holding a skull. He also wrote a note on his website saying:


title: Banksy

text: On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work "Space Girl and Bird" fetching £288,000 (US$576,000) around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London.


title: Banksy

text: On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award and continued with his anonymous status.


title: Banksy

text: On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's "The Drinker" had been stolen. In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website. The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of British Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008, Banksy's Manifesto has been replaced with Graffiti Heroes No. 03, which describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis from imprisonment. By 12 August 2009 he was relying on Emo Philips' "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn't work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness."


title: Banksy

text: A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie "Children of Men", including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy, who "is not represented by any of the commercial galleries that sell his work second hand (including Lazarides Ltd, Andipa Gallery, Bank Robber, Dreweatts etc.)", claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York City (his first major exhibition in that city) is unauthorised. The exhibition featured 62 of their paintings and prints.


title: Banksy

text: In March, Nathan Wellard and Maev Neal, a couple from Norfolk, UK, made headlines in Britain when they decided to sell their mobile home that contains a 30-foot mural, entitled "Fragile Silence", done by Banksy a decade prior to his rise to fame. According to Nathan Wellard, Banksy had asked the couple if he could use the side of their home as a "large canvas", to which they agreed. In return for the "canvas", the Bristol stencil artist gave them two free tickets to the Glastonbury Festival. The mobile home purchased by the couple 11 years earlier for £1,000, was priced at £500,000.


title: Banksy

text: Also in March 2008, a stencilled graffiti work appeared on Thames Water tower in the middle of the Holland Park roundabout, and it was widely attributed to Banksy. It was of a child painting the tag "Take this—Society!" in bright orange. London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman, Councillor Greg Smith branded the art as vandalism, and ordered its immediate removal, which was carried out by H&F council workmen within three days.


title: Banksy

text: In late August 2008, marking the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure disaster, Banksy produced a series of works in New Orleans, Louisiana, mostly on buildings derelict since the disaster.


title: Banksy

text: A stencil painting attributed to Banksy appeared at a vacant petrol station in the Ensley neighbourhood of Birmingham, Alabama on 29 August as Hurricane Gustav approached the New Orleans area. The painting, depicting a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan hanging from a noose, was quickly covered with black spray paint and later removed altogether.


title: Banksy

text: His first official exhibition in New York City, "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill", opened 5 October 2008. The animatronic pets in the store window include a mother hen watching over her baby Chicken McNuggets as they peck at a barbecue sauce packet, and a rabbit putting makeup on in a mirror.


title: Banksy

text: The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work "One Nation Under CCTV", painted in April 2008 would be painted over as it was graffiti. The council said it would remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy "has no more right to paint graffiti than a child". Robert Davis, the chairman of the council planning committee told "The Times" newspaper: "If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art." The work was painted over in April 2009.


title: Banksy

text: In December 2008, "The Little Diver", a Banksy image of a diver in a duffle coat in Melbourne, Australia, was destroyed. The image had been protected by a sheet of clear perspex; however, silver paint was poured behind the protective sheet and later tagged with the words "Banksy woz ere". The image was almost completely obliterated.


title: Banksy

text: In London, over the weekend 3–5 May 2008, Banksy hosted an exhibition called "The Cans Festival". It was situated on Leake Street, a road tunnel formerly used by Eurostar underneath London Waterloo station. Graffiti artists with stencils were invited to join in and paint their own artwork, as long as it did not cover anyone else's. Banksy invited artists from around the world to exhibit their works.


title: Banksy

text: In May 2009, Banksy parted company with agent Steve Lazarides and announced that Pest Control, the handling service who act on his behalf, would be the only point of sale for new works.


title: Banksy

text: On 13 June 2009, the Banksy vs Bristol Museum show opened at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, featuring more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works. Reaction to the show was positive, with over 8,500 visitors to the show on the first weekend. Over the course of the twelve weeks, the exhibition was visited over 300,000 times.


title: Banksy

text: In September 2009, a Banksy work parodying the Royal Family was partially destroyed by Hackney Council after they served an enforcement notice for graffiti removal to the former address of the property owner. The mural had been commissioned for the 2003 Blur single "Crazy Beat" and the property owner, who had allowed it to be painted, was reported to have been in tears when she saw it was being painted over.


title: Banksy

text: In December 2009, Banksy marked the end of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference by painting four murals on global warming. One included the phrase, "I don't believe in global warming;" the words were submerged in water.


title: Banksy

text: A feud and graffiti war between Banksy and King Robbo broke out when Banksy allegedly painted over one of Robbo's tags. The feud has led to many of Banksy's works being altered by graffiti writers.


title: Banksy

text: The world premiere of the film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" occurred at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on 24 January. He created 10 street artworks around Park City and Salt Lake City to tie in with the screening. In February, The Whitehouse public house in Liverpool, England, was sold for £114,000 at auction. The side of the building has an image of a giant rat by Banksy.


title: Banksy

text: In March 2010, a modified version of the work "Forgive Us Our Trespassing"–a kneeling boy with a spray-painted halo–was displayed at London Bridge Station on a poster. This version of the work did not possess the halo due to its stylistic nature and the prevalence of graffiti in the underground. After a few days the halo was repainted by a graffitist, so Transport for London disposed of the poster.


title: Banksy

text: In April, to coincide with the premiere of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in San Francisco, five of his works appeared in various parts of the city. Banksy reportedly paid a San Francisco Chinatown building owner $50 for the use of their wall for one of his stencils.


title: Banksy

text: In May 2010, seven new Banksy works of art appeared in Toronto, Canada, though most have been subsequently painted over or removed.


title: Banksy

text: In May, to coincide with the premiere of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in Royal Oak, Banksy visited the Detroit area and left his mark in several places in Detroit and Warren. Shortly after, his work depicting a little boy holding a can of red paint next to the words "I remember when all this was trees" was excavated by the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios. They claim that they do not intend to sell the work but plan to preserve it and display it at their Detroit gallery. There was also an attempted removal of one of the Warren works known as "Diamond Girl". While in the United States, Banksy also completed a painting in Chinatown, Boston, known as Follow Your Dreams.


title: Banksy

text: In late January 2011, "Exit Through the Gift Shop" was nominated for a 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Banksy released a statement about the nomination, stating, "This is a big surprise... I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me." Leading up to the Oscars, Banksy blanketed Los Angeles with street art. Many people speculated if Banksy would show up at the Oscars in disguise and make a surprise appearance if he won the Oscar. "Exit Through the Gift Shop" did not win the award, which went to "Inside Job". In early March 2011, Banksy responded to the Oscars with an artwork in Weston-super-Mare, UK, of a little girl holding the Oscar and pouting. Many people think that it is about 15-month-old Lara, who dropped and damaged her father's ("The King's Speech" co-producer Simon Egan) Oscar statue. "Exit Through the Gift Shop" was broadcast on British public television station Channel 4 on 13 August 2011.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy was credited with the opening couch gag for the 2010 "The Simpsons" episode "MoneyBart", depicting people working in deplorable conditions and using endangered or mythical animals to make both the episodes cel-by-cel and the merchandise connected with the program. His name appears several times throughout the episode's opening sequence, spray-painted on assorted walls and signs. Fox sanitised parts of the opening "for taste" and to make it less grim. In January 2011, Banksy published the original storyboard on its website. According to Banksy, the storyboard "led to delays, disputes over broadcast standards and a threatened walkout by the animation department." Executive director Al Jean jokingly said, "This is what you get when you outsource."


title: Banksy

text: In May 2011 Banksy released a lithographic print which showed a smoking petrol bomb contained in a 'Tesco Value' bottle. This followed a long-running campaign by locals against the opening of a Tesco Express supermarket in Banksy's home city of Bristol. Violent clashes had taken place between police and demonstrators in the Stokes Croft area. Banksy produced the poster ostensibly to raise money for local groups in the Stokes Croft area and to raise money for the legal defence of those arrested during the riots. The posters were sold exclusively at the Bristol Anarchists Bookfair in Stokes Croft for £5 each.


title: Banksy

text: In December, he unveiled "Cardinal Sin" at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The bust, which replaces a priest's face with a "pixelated" effect, was a statement on the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.


title: Banksy

text: In May his "Parachuting Rat", painted in Melbourne in the late 1990s, was accidentally destroyed by plumbers installing new pipes.


title: Banksy

text: In July, prior to the 2012 Olympic Games Banksy posted photographs of paintings with an Olympic theme on his website but did not disclose their location.


title: Banksy

text: On 18 February, BBC News reported that a recent Banksy mural, known as the "Slave Labour" mural portraying a young child sewing Union Flag bunting (created around the time of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II) had been removed from the side of a Poundland store in Wood Green, north London, and soon appeared for sale in Fine Art Auctions Miami's catalogue (a US auction site based in Florida). News of this had reportedly caused "lots of anger" in the local community and is considered by some to be a theft. Fine Art Auctions Miami had rejected claims of theft, saying it had signed a contract with a "well-known collector" and that "everything was above board"; despite this, the local Councillor for Wood Green campaigned for the work's return. On the scheduled day of the auction, Fine Art Auctions Miami announced that it had withdrawn the work of art from the sale.


title: Banksy

text: On 11 May, BBC News reported that the same Banksy mural was up for auction again in Covent Garden by the Sincura Group. The auction was scheduled to take place in June, and was expected to fetch up to £450,000. On 24 September, after over a year since his previous piece, a new mural went up on his website along with the subtitle "Better Out Than In".


title: Banksy

text: On 1 October 2013, Banksy began a one-month "show on the streets of New York [City]", for which he opened a separate website and granted an interview to "The Village Voice" via his publicist.


title: Banksy

text: A pop-up boutique of about 25 spray-art canvases appeared on Fifth Avenue near Central Park on 12 October. Tourists were able to buy Banksy art for just $60 each. In a note posted to his website, the artist wrote: "Please note this was a one-off. The stall will not be there again." The BBC estimated that the street-stall art pieces could be worth as much as $31,000. The booth was manned by an unknown elderly man who went about four hours before making a sale, yawning and eating lunch as people strolled by without a second glance at the work. Banksy chronicled the surprise sale in a video posted to his website noting, "Yesterday I set up a stall in the park selling 100% authentic original signed Banksy canvases. For $60 each." Two of the canvasses sold at a July 2014 auction for $214,000.


title: Banksy

text: Asked about the artist's presence in New York, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had led a citywide graffiti cleanup operation in 2002, said he didn't consider graffiti a form of art. One creation was a fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald and a real person, barefoot and in ragged clothes, shining the oversized shoes of Ronald McDonald. The sculpture was unveiled in Queens but moved outside a different McDonald's around the city every day. Other works included a YouTube video showing what appears to be footage of jihadist militants shooting down an animated Dumbo; travelling installations that toured the city including a slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals and a waterfall; and a modified painting donated to a charity shop which was later sold in an online auction for $615,000. Banksy also posted a mock-up of a "New York Times" op-ed attacking the design of the One World Trade Center after the "Times" rejected his submission. The residency in New York concluded on 31 October 2013; many of the pieces, though, were either vandalised, removed or stolen.


title: Banksy

text: In February 2015 Banksy published a 2-minute video titled "Make this the year YOU discover a new destination" about his trip to Gaza Strip. During the visit he painted a few artworks including a kitten on the remains of a house destroyed by an Israeli air strike ("I wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website—but on the internet people only look at pictures of kittens") and a swing hanging off a watchtower. In a statement to "The New York Times" his publicist said,


title: Banksy

text: Banksy opened Dismaland, a large scale group show modelled on Disneyland on 21 August 2015. It lampooned the many disappointing temporary themed attractions in the UK at the time. Dismaland permanently closed on 27 September 2015. The "theme park" was located in Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom. According to the Dismaland website, artists represented on the show include Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer.


title: Banksy

text: In December 2015, Banksy created several murals in the vicinity of Calais, France, including the so-called "Jungle" where migrants then lived as they attempted to enter the United Kingdom. One of the pieces, "The Son of a Migrant from Syria," depicts Steve Jobs as a migrant.


title: Banksy

text: In 2017, marking the 100th anniversary of the British control of Palestine, Banksy financed the creation of the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. This hotel is open to the public and contains rooms designed by Banksy, Sami Musa, and Dominique Petrin, and each of the bedrooms face the wall. It also houses a contemporary art gallery.


title: Banksy

text: 2018 saw Banksy return to New York five years after his "Better Out Than In" residency. A trademark rat running around the circumference of a clock-face, dubbed "Rat race", was torn down by developers within a week of it appearing on a former bank building at 101 West 14th Street, but other works, including a mural of imprisoned Kurdish artist Zehra Doğan on the famed Bowery Wall and a series of others across Brooklyn, remain on display.


title: Banksy

text: In October 2018, one of Banksy's works, "Balloon Girl", was sold in an auction at Sotheby's in London for £1.04m. However, shortly after the gavel dropped and it was sold, an alarm sounded inside of the picture frame and the canvas passed through a shredder hidden within the frame, partially shredding the picture. Banksy then posted an image of the shredding on Instagram captioned "Going, going, gone...". After the sale, the auction house acknowledged that the self-destruction of the work was a prank by the artist. The prank received wide news coverage around the world, with one newspaper stating that it was "quite possibly the biggest prank in art history." Joey Syer, co-founder of an online platform facilitating art dealer sales, told the "Evening Standard": "The auction result will only propel this further and given the media attention this stunt has received, the lucky buyer would see a great return on the £1.02M they paid last night, this is now part of art history in its shredded state and we'd estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% to its value, possibly as high as being worth £2m+." A man seen filming the shredding of the picture during its auction has been suggested to be Banksy. Banksy has since released a video on how the shredder was installed into the frame and the shredding of the picture, explaining that he had surreptitiously fitted the painting with the shredder a few years previously, in case it ever went up for auction. To explain his rationale for destroying his own artwork, Banksy quoted Picasso: "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge". (Although Banksy cited Picasso, this quote is usually attributed to Mikhail Bakunin.) It is not known how the shredder was activated. Banksy has released another video indicating that the painting was intended to be shredded completely. The video shows a sample painting completely shredded by the frame and says: "In rehearsals it worked every time...".


title: Banksy

text: The woman who won the bidding at the auction decided to go through with the purchase. The partially shredded work has been given a new title, "Love is in the Bin", and it was authenticated by Banksy's authentication body Pest Control. Sotheby released a statement that said "Banksy didn't destroy an artwork in the auction, he created one," and called it "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction." On 14 October 2021, the half-shredded painting was reported to have been sold for $25.4 million.


title: Banksy

text: A two-sided graffiti piece, one side depicting a child tasting the falling snow, the other revealing that the snow is in fact smoke and embers from a dumpster fire, appeared on two walls of a steelworker's garage in Port Talbot in December. Banksy then revealed that the painting was in fact his via an Instagram video soundtracked by the festive children's song 'Little Snowflake'. Many fans of the artist went to see the painting and Plaid Cymru councillor for Aberavon, Nigel Thomas Hunt, stated that the town was "buzzing" with speculation that the work was Banksy's. The owner of the garage, Ian Lewis, said that he had lost sleep over fears that the image would be vandalised. A plastic screen, partially funded by Michael Sheen, was installed to protect the mural, but was attacked by a "drunk halfwit". Extra security guards were subsequently drafted to protect the graffiti piece. In May 2019, the mural was moved to a gallery in the town's Ty'r Orsaf building.


title: Banksy

text: In early October 2019, Banksy opened a "pop-up shop" named "Gross Domestic Product" in Croydon, South London to strengthen his position in a trademark dispute with a greetings cards company who had challenged his trademark on the grounds that he was not using it. In a statement, Banksy said "A greetings cards company is contesting the trademark I hold to my art, and attempting to take custody of my name so they can sell their fake Banksy merchandise legally." Mark Stephens, arts lawyer and founder of the Design and Artists Copyright Society, called the case a "ludicrous litigation" and is providing the artist legal advice. Stephens recommended opening the shop to Banksy on the grounds that it would show he is making use of his trademark, saying: "Because [Banksy] doesn't produce his own range of shoddy merchandise and the law is quite clear—if the trademark holder is not using the mark, then it can be transferred to someone who will."


title: Banksy

text: On 4 October 2019, greetings cards distributor Full Colour Black publicly revealed itself as the company involved in the trademark dispute whilst rejecting Banksy's claims as "entirely untrue". The company claimed it had contacted Banksy's lawyers several times to offer to pay royalties.


title: Banksy

text: On 14 September 2020, the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled in favour of Full Colour Black in the trademark dispute over Banksy's infamous "Flower Thrower" The European panel judges in (Full Colour Black Ltd v Pest Control Office Ltd [2020] E.T.M.R. 58) decided that Banksy's trademark was invalid as it had been filed in Bad Faith according to Regulation 2017/1001 art.59(1)(b). The judges were not convinced that the opening of the artist's "pop-up shop" demonstrated a real intention to legitimise the trademark, condemning it as "inconsistent with the honest practices of the trade" [at 1141]. The artist's choice to be represented anonymously was not received well by the court either, noting that even if they found in favour of Banksy, legal rights could not be attributed to an unidentifiable person [1151]. However, counsel for the defence strongly argued that to reveal his identity would diminish the persona of the artist [at 1135]. Although not binding, the judges also referenced Banksy's previously critical statements about copyright, which contributed to the lack of sympathy for the artist's case [at 1144].


title: Banksy

text: In October 2019, "Devolved Parliament", a 2009 painting by Banksy showing Members of Parliament depicted as chimpanzees in the House of Commons, sold at Sotheby's in London for just under £9.9 million. On Instagram, the artist said it was a "record price for a Banksy painting" and "shame I didn't still own it". At wide it is Banksy's biggest known work on canvas. The auction house stated: "Regardless of where you sit in the Brexit debate, there's no doubt that this work is more pertinent now than it has ever been."


title: Banksy

text: On 13 February 2020, the Valentine's Banksy mural appeared on the side of a building in Bristol's Barton Hill neighbourhood, depicting a young girl firing a slingshot of real red flowers and leaves. In the early hours of Valentine's Day (14 February), Banksy confirmed this was his work on his Instagram account and website. The painting was defaced just days after appearing.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy dedicated a painting titled "Painting for Saints" or "Game Changer" to NHS staff, and donated it to the University Hospital of Southampton during the global coronavirus pandemic in May 2020. The painting was sold for £14.4m (£16.8m including buyer premium) on 23 March 2021, which is a record for an artwork by Banksy. The proceeds from the sale would benefit a number of NHS-related organisations and charities.


title: Banksy

text: Two days later Banksy claimed the artwork. The former jail's next use had been disputed locally, some wanting it to be used as an arts hub, while developers proposed it could be sold to a housing developer.


title: Banksy

text: The escaping prisoner was said to resemble Oscar Wilde, who had been imprisoned in Reading Prison, with the "rope" as tied together bedsheets with a typewriter attached to the end.


title: Banksy

text: In August 2021, several Banksy artworks, collectively titled "A Great British Spraycation", appeared in several East Anglian towns.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy created an original artwork for the 2021 BBC One/Amazon Prime Video comedy "The Outlaws". The image of a stencilled rat sitting on two spray cans signed by Banksy featured in the sixth episode of the first series, and was painted over by the character Frank, played by Christopher Walken, while he was cleaning a graffiti-covered wall as part of his Community Payback sentence.


title: Banksy

text: In November 2022, Banksy posted on social media images of a mural on the side of a damaged building at the town of Borodianka, appearing to confirm a visit to Ukraine following the Russian invasion. He also created six murals in Kyiv, Irpin, Hostomel and Horenka.


title: Banksy

text: In 2008, in Melbourne, paint was poured over a stencil of an old-fashioned diver wearing a trench coat. In April 2010, the Melbourne City Council reported that they had inadvertently ordered private contractors to paint over a rat descending in a parachute adorning the wall of an old council building behind the Forum Theatre.


title: Banksy

text: Many works that make up the "Better Out Than In" series in New York City have been defaced, some just hours after the piece was unveiled. At least one defacement was identified as done by a competing artist, OMAR NYC, who spray-painted over Banksy's red mylar balloon piece in Red Hook. OMAR NYC also defaced some of Banksy's work in May 2010.


title: Banksy

text: Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in the stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photographic quality of much of his work. He mentions in his book "Wall and Piece" that as he was starting to do graffiti, he was always either caught or could never finish the art in one sitting. He claims he changed to stencilling while hiding from the police under a rubbish lorry, when he noticed the stencilled serial number. He then devised a series of intricate stencils to minimise time and overlapping of the colour.


title: Banksy

text: There exists a debate about the influence behind his work. Some critics claim Banksy was influenced by musician and graffiti artist 3D. Another source credits the artist's work to resemble that of French graffiti artist Blek le Rat. It is said that Banksy was inspired by their use of stencils, later taking this visual style and transforming it through modern political and social pieces.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.


title: Banksy

text: In the broader art world, stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand. This technique allows artists to paint quickly to protect their anonymity. There is dispute in the street art world over the legitimacy of stencils, with many artists criticising their use as "cheating".


title: Banksy

text: In 2018, Banksy created a piece live, as it was being auctioned. The piece, titled, "Love is in the Bin", was originally the painting, "Girl with Balloon", before it was shredded at Sotheby's. While the bidding was going on, a shredder was activated from within the frame, and the piece was partially shredded, thus creating a new piece.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy once characterised graffiti as a form of underclass "revenge", or guerrilla warfare that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy. Banksy sees a social class component to this struggle, remarking "If you don't own a train company then you go and paint on one instead." Banksy's work has also shown a desire to mock centralised power, hoping that their work will show the public that although power does exist and works against you, that power is not terribly efficient and it can and should be deceived.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy's works have dealt with various political and social themes, including anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, nihilism, and existentialism. Additionally, the components of the human condition that his works commonly critique are greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair, absurdity, and alienation. Although Banksy's works usually rely on visual imagery and iconography to put forth their message, Banksy has made several politically related comments in various books. In summarising his list of "people who should be shot", he listed "Fascist thugs, religious fundamentalists, (and) people who write lists telling you who should be shot." While facetiously describing his political nature, Banksy declared that "Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world, I can't even finish my second apple pie."


title: Banksy

text: Banksy's work has also critiqued the environmental impacts of big businesses. When speaking about his 2005 work "Show me the Monet," Banksy explained:


title: Banksy

text: "The vandalised paintings reflect life as it is now. We don't live in a world like Constable's Haywain anymore and, if you do, there is probably a travellers' camp on the other side of the hill. The real damage done to our environment is not done by graffiti writers and drunken teenagers, but by big business... exactly the people who put gold-framed pictures of landscapes on their walls and try to tell the rest of us how to behave."


title: Banksy

text: "Show me the Monet" repurposes Claude Monet's "Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies," with the inclusion of two shopping carts and an orange traffic cone. This painting was later sold for £7.5 million at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction in 2020.


title: Banksy

text: During the 2017 United Kingdom general election, Banksy offered voters a free print if they cast a ballot against the Conservative candidates standing in the Bristol North West, Bristol West, North Somerset, Thornbury, Kingswood and Filton constituencies. According to a note posted on Banksy's website, an emailed photo of a completed ballot paper showing it marked for a candidate other than the Conservative candidate would result in the voter being mailed a limited edition piece of Banksy art. On 5 June 2017 the Avon and Somerset Constabulary announced it had opened an investigation into Banksy for the suspected corrupt practice of bribery, and the following day Banksy withdrew the offer stating "I have been warned by the Electoral Commission that the free print offer will invalidate the election result. So I regret to announce that this ill-conceived and legally dubious promotion has now been cancelled."


title: Banksy

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Banksy referenced medical advice to self-isolate by creating an artwork in his bathroom.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy has donated a number of works to promote various causes, such as "Civilian Drone Strike", which was sold in 2017 at £205,000 to raise funds for Campaign Against Arms Trade and Reprieve. It was part of the exhibition 'Art the Arms Fair' set up in opposition to the DSEI arms fair. In 2018, a sculpture titled "Dream Boat", which was exhibited in Dismaland in 2015, was raffled off in aid of the NGO Help Refugees (now called Choose Love) for a minimum donation of £2 for every guesses of its weight in a pop-up Choose Love shop in Carnaby Street. In 2002, he produced artwork for the Greenpeace campaign Save or Delete. He also provided works to support local causes; in 2013, a work titled "The Banality of the Banality of Evil" was sold for an undisclosed amount after a failed auction to support an anti-homelessness charity in New York, In 2014, an artwork on a doorway titled "Mobile Lovers" was sold £403,000 to keep a youth club in Bristol open, and he created merchandise for homeless charities in Bristol in 2019.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy has been producing a number of works and projects in support of the Palestinians since the mid-2000s, including The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem.


title: Banksy

text: In July 2020, Banksy sold three paintings forming a triptych titled "Mediterranean Sea View 2017", which raised £2.2 million for a hospital in Bethlehem. The paintings were original created for The Walled Off Hotel, and are Romantic-era paintings of the seashore that have been modified with images of lifebuoys and orange life jackets washed up on the shore, a reference to the European migrant crisis.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy gifted a painting titled "Game Changer" to a hospital in May 2020 as a tribute to National Health Service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later sold for £14.4m in March 2021 to benefit a number of NHS-related organisations and charities.


title: Banksy

text: In August 2020, it was revealed that Banksy had privately funded a rescue boat to save refugees at risk in the Mediterranean Sea. The former French Navy boat, renamed after Louise Michel, has been painted pink with an image of a young girl holding a heart-shaped safety float.


title: Banksy

text: Peter Gibson, a spokesman for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism. Another official for the same organisation stated: "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism."


title: Banksy

text: Banksy has also been long criticised for copying the work of Blek le Rat, who created the life-sized stencil technique in early 1980s Paris and used it to express a similar combination of political commentary and humorous imagery. Blek has praised Banksy for his contribution to urban art, but said in an interview for the documentary "Graffiti Wars" that some of Banksy's more derivative work makes him "angry", saying that "It's difficult to find a technique and style in art so when you have a style and you see someone else is taking it and reproducing it, you don't like that."


title: Banksy

text: Some have criticised the "obviousness" of Banksy's work and accused it of being "anarchy-lite" geared towards a middle class "hipster" audience. Much of this criticism came forward during his series of works in New York in 2013. Many New York street artists, such as TrustoCorp, criticised Banksy, and much of his work was defaced. In his column for "The Guardian", satirist Charlie Brooker wrote that Banksy's "work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots."


title: Banksy

text: Banksy was accused of being "inconsistent with honest practices" when trying to trademark his image of a protester throwing a bouquet of flowers. The European Union trademark office threw out his trademark claim, "saying he had filed it in order to avoid using copyright laws, which are separate and would have required [him] to reveal his true identity. The ruling quoted from one of his books, in which he said 'copyright is for losers'."


title: Banksy

text: Banksy has published several books that contain photographs of his work accompanied by his own writings:


title: Banksy

text: "Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall", "Existencilism", and "Cut It Out" were a three-part self-published series of small booklets.


title: Banksy

text: "Pictures of Walls" is a compilation book of pictures of the work of other graffiti artists, curated and self-published by Banksy. None of them are still in print, or were ever printed in any significant number.


title: Banksy

text: Banksy's "Wall and Piece" compiled large parts of the images and writings in their original three-book series, with heavy editing and some new material. It was intended for mass print, and published by Random House.


title: Banksy

text: The writings in their original three books had numerous grammatical errors, and his writings in them often took a dark, and angry, and a (self-described) paranoid tone. While the content in them was almost entirely kept in "Wall and Piece", the stories were edited and generally took a less provocative tone, and the grammatical errors were resolved (presumably to make it suitable for mass market distribution).


title: Psychology

text: Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups. Ψ ("psi"), the first letter of the Greek word "psyche" from which the term psychology is derived (see below), is commonly associated with the science.


title: Psychology

text: A professional practitioner or researcher involved in the discipline is called a psychologist. Some psychologists can also be classified as behavioral or cognitive scientists. Some psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior. Others explore the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie cognitive functions and behaviors.


title: Psychology

text: Psychologists are involved in research on perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, subjective experiences, motivation, brain functioning, and personality. Psychologists' interests extend to interpersonal relationships, psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas within social psychology. They also consider the unconscious mind. Research psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. Some, but not all, clinical and counseling psychologists rely on symbolic interpretation.


title: Psychology

text: While psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also directed towards understanding and solving problems in several spheres of human activity. By many accounts, psychology ultimately aims to benefit society. Many psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing psychotherapy in clinical, counseling, or school settings. Other psychologists conduct scientific research on a wide range of topics related to mental processes and behavior. Typically the latter group of psychologists work in academic settings (e.g., universities, medical schools, or hospitals). Another group of psychologists is employed in industrial and organizational settings. Yet others are involved in work on human development, aging, sports, health, forensic science, education, and the media.


title: Psychology

text: The word "psychology" derives from the Greek word "psyche", for spirit or soul. The latter part of the word "psychology" derives from -λογία "-logia", which refers to "study" or "research". The Latin word "psychologia" was first used by the Croatian humanist and Latinist Marko Marulić in his book, "Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae" ("Psychology, on the Nature of the Human Soul") in the late 15th century or early 16th century. The earliest known reference to the word "psychology" in English was by Steven Blankaart in 1694 in "The Physical Dictionary". The dictionary refers to "Anatomy, which treats the Body, and Psychology, which treats of the Soul."


title: Psychology

text: In 1890, William James defined "psychology" as "the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and their conditions." This definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. However, this meaning was contested, notably by radical behaviorists such as John B. Watson, who in 1913 asserted that the discipline is a "natural science", the theoretical goal of which "is the prediction and control of behavior." Since James defined "psychology", the term more strongly implicates scientific experimentation. Folk psychology refers to ordinary people's, as contrasted with psychology professionals', understanding of the mental states and behaviors of people.