Banksy's "Napalm"

 

"Napalm" 2004 by Banksy

 

Note: This post was prompted by a discussion on Facebook in which a commenter seemed to object to Banksy's use of a detail from the famous photo known widely as "Napalm Girl."  

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The last 100 years of media-driven popular culture have given us countless images and phrases that have escaped the boundaries of their original context, because they have been seen and/or heard so many times ... in both deliberate and accidental associations with other ideas. They have gradually become loaded with meanings and connections, so the limitations of their original context and/or their literal meaning are just part of their history. 

Moreover, once one becomes a celebrity, however it happened -- like it, or not -- one's documented persona will always be part of the record. So, in my book, Banksy can use that Vietnamese "Napalm Girl" image in his art. Following the Pulitzer Prize that Nick Ut won for shooting that haunting photo, in 1972, there's just no way to undo the minting of Phan Thi Kim Phúc's status as a nine-year-old celebrity war victim. To many people that picture of her is the first thing they think of when that war is mentioned.

So, for whatever reason, any viewer might not like Banksy's art. That's fine, but that image the artist appropriated from Ut's photo carries a lot of meaning and feeling in the postmodern art world of trampled dignities and scars. Linking it to happy Mickey and Ronald delivers a jarring punch.     

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