A pair of street artists have claimed responsibility for the hoax Banksy that appeared in Glasgow city centre last week, saying the reaction to their drumming rodent highlights the hypocrisy of council and public attitudes to graffiti.
Conzo Throb and Ciaran Glöbel explained in a series of Instagram posts how they painted the image of a rat – a typical motif of the anonymous street artist whose first solo exhibition in 14 years, Cut and Run, has just opened at the Gallery of Modern Art – in a nearby alleyway and watched as social media rumours took hold, resulting in blanket media coverage and the eventual painting over of their work by Glasgow city council.
Throb and Glöbel said they had studied Banksy’s past and present work carefully and imagined what aspect of Glasgow culture he might pick up on, then turned their design into a multilayered stencil.
The image that appeared last Wednesday morning was of a rat wearing a union jack bowler while banging a drum emblazoned with the words “God Save the King” – and which Glasgow residents immediately recognised as the garb of one of the city’s traditional but highly controversial Orange parades. It was later vandalised with blue paint.
Once the design was confirmed as not genuine by the Cut and Run publicity team, “it was only a matter of time before it was removed”, said Throb and Glöbel.
“It highlighted the hypocrisy within street art and graffiti, where some artworks are praised and others are removed completely, often without any consideration to their artistic value.
“Glasgow spends the most on graffiti removal compared to any other city in the UK and while some of that cost may be warranted it highlights the need for policy change around the issue.”
Glasgow’s street art scene has gained international prominence in recent years, with the annual Yardworks festival, one of Europe’s biggest public art projects, and tourist trails taking in the city centre’s popular gable-end murals.
The city council has confirmed it is exploring options for setting up legal walls where artists can develop their work without fear of arrest.
But local artists say there are tensions between what is celebrated as urban art and what is criminalised. They point out that many young people struggle to afford formal art education, and risk breaking the law when developing their work on the street.
The Yardworks festival runs associated workshops and events across the year which give youngsters with a passion a safer space to try out their styles, and the opportunity to learn from working artists.
