Nathan Bowen Arrested whilst drawing on panels
Here is Nathan drawing in the City of London today. Within forty minutes of starting his work under a CCTV camera, he was arrested. My colleague and I were cautioned by three police offers for "abetting him." The police don't like cameras in the City of London apparently. Section 24 was mentioned. If you recall, it was Tony Blair who once signed up to a Keep Britain Tidy campaign which explicitly stated "Graffiti is not art. it is crime." Blair saw crimes and criminals everywhere not to mention weapons of mass destruction. Strange is it not that graffiti or street art over the 5 years since that statement has become so prominent in cultural and artistic life in the UK. Banksy is hugely bankable. Various city councils are aiding and abetting criminal behaviour by protecting his work. The Tate Modern has held a major exhibition on graffiti and Bristol has gone Banksy and 3D gaga. Even the NHS has produced a report using street art as the style theme....and yet the City of London police who are, they told us, ever so vigilant about terrorist attacks near St Pauls, thought it appropriate to arrest Nathan Bowen on a sunny sunday afternoon for drawing cartoon figures of builders on fencing panels and then drive him away to the police station.
Comments [1]