Uptown Girl – Dorothy, stopped by a policeman to search her basket in “Stop and Search”, becomes a wealthy uptown girl wearing luxury brand products. Her Hermes Birkin Bag gets searched by a security man. Her terrier Toto is replaced by a pug dog named Tutu, who wears a fancy Moncler dog jacket. Uptown Girl can also be seen in two pictures of the “Hidden in Tokyo” collection: Love Hotel and Sale Starts Tomorrow. The story behind the art piece: When I visited Japan’s first Banksy exhibition “Genius or Vandal” in Yokohama in fall 2020 my 8-year- old son asked me: “Who is Banksy, Mama?” I answered: “Banksy is a street artist, but nobody knows the real identity, Banksy could also be a woman!” My son started laughing. “No Mama, Banksy is definitely a man.” I asked him why. Because he is doing street art, graffiti, and he is probably also into parcour because he has to run away from the police. Only guys do things like that!” I insisted and told him that there are also a lot of well-known female street artists. But he referred to YouTube as his source. Of course. YouTube knows everything. The “research” I did in the evening later that day proved him right. My passion for urban art started as a child with the art of the Berlin Wall. It was always great fun to search for new pictures and messages. Growing older some of my friends were also active in the scene, spraying during the night, always with the thrill of getting caught. BUT, what do I know? YouTube is the most reliable source for today’s youth. Two weeks later, when we spent a week of vacation on Ishigaki Island, I listed to a conversation our kids had with their new friends from America, Germany, Korea and France about Banksy. All of the kids, between 8 and 14 years, knew his name ,and they knew that he does “cool” street art. My son told them about the exhibition and that his mother mentioned that Banksy could also be a woman. All of them giggled and told him: “Your mother is old school. She is almost 40. She doesn’t know what she is talking about!” OK! Boys and Girls, here comes the old-fashioned, wrinkly mother who is too old to climb on buildings, do parcour and jump from walls (after three kids my pelvic floor doesn’t allow experiments like that!), with the answer to all of your questions… BANKSY IS A GIRL! I have been doing décollage art since I was a child. My passion is to mix old or antique material with modern elements. I use materials like paper, acrylic paint, antique books, old magazines and prints from all around the world, mix them together in order to create a new story. I love Banksy’s political messages and I am always excited to see new works by this artist. In my art, I give BANKSY’s characters a new face.
