Title: The Tarot Banksy (2nd edition)
Price: $85/ £63
Artist: Banksy
Author: Shilo Lewis
Dimensions: I can't find them
Publisher: Self Published on Etsy
Date: 2018
Style: Street Art
For those who don't know, Banksy is a political "anonymous" famous artist from the UK. Who makes statement pieces that appear in places all over the world. It is not confirmed who he is but there is much speculation. My favourite rumour is that he is Robert Dėl Naja from Massive attack, but it's more likely to be some guy called Robin... I'll let you educate yourselves on this one.
The box
Comes in a standard type of box but the quality is really really good, a little more durable than most standard tarot boxes and a really smooth finish. Amazing quality, you absolutely get what you pay for.
It comes at you with the attitude you'd expect from a Banksy Tarot, no fucks to give, so deal with it! And hey let's face it, it needs to be in your face, Banksy is a well renowned artist and his work carries an anti establishment, anti war, anti capitalist message and reputation so anything carrying his name needs to be the same standard. In my humble opinion.
Comes with a little guide book
Cards
Card quality is as smooth and easy to shuffle as the quality of the box indicates, also I'm a Magpie..... I like shiny things
That photo does not do the cards any justice at all, the red gilding is really gorgeous and adds a nice finishing touch.
Card stock is superb, smooth, silky and the backs also carry the attention to detail. 10/10
As you can see the red detail continues through and I appreciate this touch. When studying the Principles of design, repetition is one of the aspects that create a harmonious piece. I appreciate the small things.
There are many poignant Archetypes
The Minor Arcana has changed
Buckets - Cups
Spray - Swords
Brushes - Wands
Stencils - Pentacles
The Royals of the Suits have also changed from Page, Prince etc..
Most of the cards in the suits are the same as the Major Arcana, in the sense that they are all thought provoking.
So let's get to my most hated card, the 10 of swords (Spray Cans)
In Conclusion
The Tarot Banksy is not for the faint hearted, this is no light worker unicorn mermaid love and light deck.
It is a thought provoking deck, and i appreciate the effort it would have taken the Author to research the catalogue and line up the images with the right ones in the Tarot. Although I do question if it's appropriate for certain types of readings, I wouldn't want to push it on a vulnerable person who's struggling with their mental health.
Also the effort gone into making sure it's a quality deck, it's expensive because it's self published but goes to show how much authors need to spend if they do something away from a big publisher.
Buuuuuut my criticism here is the lack of originality, because let's be straight about it. The author hasn't commissioned the artist, they've simply taken the art of a well known artists and used the name to make a Tarot and tap into the Cartomancy market.
All for profit.
If you don't mind that, and this work resonates with you. Then this is a good deck, but only because it's very well executed. To be honest it's not for me
Hype.
Sort of
Quite thought-provoking! I do see the focus on the negative here—helpful for a resistant Seeker perhaps? Such as myself? I’d say this is a winner, if only for the Banksy art!
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