BANKSY and the Relationship Between Religion and Popular Culture

Many of you will be familiar with the elusive street artist who goes by the name of Banksy. Nominated for Best Documentary for Exit Through the Gift Shop at this year's Academy Awards (though he lost to Inside Job) and internationally notorious for his street art, Banksy's work epitomizes the crumbling relationship between Christianity and contemporary Western society. His work critiques the place of Christianity and religion in modern society and thus falls squarely into Gordon Lynch's first category of "Studying Religion in Relation to Everyday Life". Lynch splits this category into three chief areas, the second of which he describes as "considering how religion is represented in wider forms of popular culture." (Lynch, 23) This blog entry is devoted to analyzing Banksy's social commentary on Christianity through of a few examples of his work.

The above image is a clear response to the faltering influence of Christianity in a technologically dominated society. This image is positively loaded with messages about Christianity and religion in general. If we look at Google as being representative of technology and technology as a representative of science, and we compare this to Jesus as a symbol of religion, we see the ultimate clash between science and religion.

Here Jesus himself admits he does not have the answers - "Try Google," he says, and in this we see religion defer to science. We see a critique of faith in today's society. Who looks to the Bible, the Church, your local pastor in response to a question, conflict, or issue? Very few - instead we flip open the Mac and Google or Wikipedia the answers to moral issues and questions of faith alike. Google represents the all-knowing and all-powerful influence in our society, the father figure and friend alike. Who helps us as students with our assignments? Is it prayer to God that got us through that test or was it that hour we spent googling and researching via the internet? Contemporary society is so technologically focused that we have lost our faith in the former all-knowing, comforting father figure of Jesus Christ and God. Here Banksy mocks the fall of Christian influence to our science-based society. I choose to believe his mockery is satirical, meant not to ridicule the Christian faith but to prompt us to question and examine the overarching influences we subscribe to.

With relation to Lynch, it is clear that forms of popular culture like street art often represent religion in a negative light. Here popular culture represents religion as outdated and having lost touch with the times. Sure, it's a negative message - but critiques like Banksy's are beneficial to religion in that they keep it relevant. The fact that Banksy is utilizing traditional images of Jesus on the cross, a white dove, Mother Mary and baby Jesus - that serves to remind people of the transition our culture has gone through with respect to Christianity. It serves as a medium of reflection and in offending devout Catholics, it brings the issue of religion in modern society back to the forefront of public debate.

Controversial work like Banksy's is often underrated in how it helps exactly what it is critiquing: in calling out religion's failure to integrate into a technologically driven society, perhaps Banksy is calling for its defense. Perhaps it is an attempt to motivate the Catholic Church to respond and retaliate. Perhaps it is an attempt to motivate society as a whole to analyze their views on religion and particularly their hypocrisy when it comes to action vs. words and empty faith. As Lynch notes, "Analyzing how religion is represented in contemporary media is not therefore simply a case of describing these representations. Rather it involves asking what these representations may tell us about wider biases, values, and concerns in contemporary society..." (Lynch, 24) Indeed, the Banksy images serve as a basis on which to evaluate religion's place in today's society. The above image suggests we value technology more than faith, and that perhaps many are concerned about society's move away from faith, morality, and Christianity to a culture that instead focuses on Google, Jersey Shore, and BBM.

The image to the right depicts Jesus's crucifixion - yet in Banksy's portrayal we see Jesus in a Bristol City football jersey, with the stenciled word "RELIGION" below him. This relates very much to Tracy Trothen's article on sports having replaced Christianity as a modern form of 'religion' in contemporary society.

Football (soccer, footy, whatever you want to call it) is a worldwide phenomenon that brings people together based on city, nation, and team. We see during the World Cup Little Italy in Toronto come together for Azzuri, and Little Portugal at St. Clair go insane when Portugal wins a game. German fans all over Toronto united to celebrate how far the German team went in last summer's World Cup, as did fans of Oranje. Africans screamed Bafana Bafana for their boys on the pitch and tears of joy were shed throughout Madrid when Spain emerged victorious. Banksy's interpretation of Jesus in a Bristol City jersey comments on modern society's obsession with sport and its similarities of rituals and togetherness that mirror what Christianity used to be to society.

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