Banksy Tags Bakar Bio Labs
Since the 60’s, Berkeley has been home of free expression, though never through graffiti. But Gino Segre, MD was surprised to found a crowd had formed near the front entrance of the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub on Tuesday morning.
Students, faculty, and other passersby numbering in the dozens were staring at unauthorized artwork painted on the front facade of the Brutalist landmark building. The installation provoked varied responses, many nodding vigorously that it was vibrant, bold, profane, and timely.
An employee pressed through the crowd on her way into work, and muttered it looked like her recently contaminated cell culture.
One viewer who declined to be identified, but appeared to be a graduate student possibly studying art criticism, turned to the crowd and explained that the work simultaneously embodies and negates its own representational paradigms. He was interrupted by another observer holding a skateboard yelling excitedly “Check it — homie basically just took biocapitalism and SLAMMED it harder than I land a kickflip. He’s got mad skills.”
Campus Facilities Services Rapid Response Division was on scene by 9:41 to assess the situation. Apparently, they had been tipped off by exploding Instagram feeds. The group had recently formed in order to quickly respond to developing situations, particularly those involving freedom of expression, Signal messages show. Jeers and cheers went up as they dispersed the crowd with pepper spray and began restoring BBH to its luminous concrete grandeur. Within minutes, the work many had hailed as a knockout was gone.
When asked for comment Professor Art Fulgest, on faculty since 1941 at Berkeley, noted Banksy’s ability to amplify and mutate today’s culture. “Concrete is his preferred medium, and his message is unmistakable, showing levity, brevity, and a proclivity for shibboleths that articulate a brilliantly keen insight using an unconventional medium which is both pedestrian and rarefied. His use of color is spot on.”
Banksy was reached later in the day through a second cousin, an employee in the Bakar Bio Labs bizops team. Having intended to tag BAM, he was dismayed to learn the museum had moved downtown years ago, and was deeply embarrassed by the mistake. He had taken the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub sign for the name of a current exhibition. “Unpronounceable,” he pronounced. “What does ‘BioEnginuity’ even mean, innit?”
Director Dave Schaffer later observed that it was appropriate that the story had gone “viral”, like so many of the technologies in house. Schaffer, reached via Zoom on a wine tour in Provence, said he wished he had seen it, and expressed an interest in seeing the Brutalist monolith restore its original purpose as a center for art.
“Someone call HR,” Jeremy Alberga, COO, said upon first viewing the artwork, which he deemed offensive to Canadians. Then he saw dollar signs. “We are always innovating and looking for ways to expand our value to the campus community and the larger ecosystem. Banksy art commands millions at auction. In their haste the campus goons defaced a gold mine. We’ve thrown away a winning lottery ticket! Fools!”
Triggered by this sequence of events, Bakar Bio Labs leadership is now proposing to rent walls by the linear foot as a high-visibility opportunity for emerging artists. Pricing will be market rate, plus 15% overhead.
