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Banksy vs Bristol Museum
Introduction
I was quite young at the time but I am pretty sure I can pinpoint when I first saw a Banksy stencil. I had a skateboard, long hair and not a care in the world. The first artwork was a stencil of a chimp sprayed on the bridge between Bedminster and the Arnolfini Arts Centre. The chimp had a board around his neck with the words something like..."Why did the monkey come down from the tree if all he became was me?" printed on it. 'That's cool' I thought and skated on my way. Little did I know that many years later I would queue for two and a half hours to get into Bristol Museum to see Banksy's work!
I can also remember when I was first aware of Bankys becoming a phenomenon. I was at Manchester Met Uni in 1995 and all of a sudden guys from London were talking about Banksy. What? The artist who graffitis around Bristol? Apparently the answer was 'yes'!
So, back to the queue. It was two and a half hours to get in and that is amazing in itself. The exhibition had been running for a fair few weeks but any thoughts we had of walking straight in were soon dashed by the huge queue formed in the street that cuts down past Brown's the restaurant. Well, we were here now so we may as well wait...
The Exhibition
Once we got in to the Museum it was well worth the wait. The main exhibition is spread over three main areas. In the photo to the left you can see the burnt out ice cream van in the central area of the museum. There are also some white marble statues around the outside and one of Banksy's 'Riot Police' on a child's rocking seaside ride. It is quite uncanny how life-like the figure is and this really sets the tone for what I believe to be Banksy's strengths in art. Pretty much everything he does has an uncomfortable edge of realism.
Some of the realism comes from the physical look of a piece, such as the huge painting of the House of Commons filled with chimps. This piece has all the quality brush work of a great master and you have to look twice to realise what is up with the scene. Some of it comes from the situations the Banksy 'characters' find themselves in, the white marble statue in the short skirt and boob tube who looks like she is hell bent on drinking and smoking her youth away. The rest comes from an incredible sense of 'I know that this is what the world is coming to'.
Banksy continues to poke fun at the usual symbols of authority. I particularly like this huge image, in the second of the main areas of the exhibition, showing the riot police again but this time in stencil and skipping through a lush summer meadow. There are the other targets for character assasination that you would come to expect from Banksy. There was an extract from Jon Gaunt's 'Talk Sport' phone-in show with a London Borough councillor trying to explain away why they had painted over some Banksy pieces. There is religion, other artists, anarchists, politicians and even the viewer themselves. A lot of it is very clever and well thought out and must have taken an age to concieve and pull together.
The third main area of the exhibition features some very strange sights. Set in the semi-gloom so as not to disturb the 'residents' there stand cages and glass tanks with some pretty disturbing mechanical animals.
There is a 'Cheetah' which is made from a fur coat, a mother and baby surveillance cameras, a make-up wearing rabbit and the ancient 'Tweetie Pie' you can see on the image on the left to name but a few.
The rest of the exhibition is spread around the museum. One of the great things about the displays is that Banksy is everywhere. You need to take a tour around the whole place and look very closely to spot where Banksy has been. I don't want to ruin the fun in finding everything for other visitors so I have kept the images in the photo gallery to a minimum but they do represent my favourite pieces.
I'm sure that Banksy is aware of the potential for cries of 'sellout' because of what many might say is a very mainstream way of displaying what should be street art. However, I feel that Banksy has gone beyond the humble street beginnings. Banksy artwork is published in many books, has sold for over £100,000 per piece and has been displayed in London, New York and now Bristol. Banksy art should be seen by people all over the world and we have been very lucky in Bristol that we have been able to enjoy it for much longer than any other city. It is too easy to cry 'sellout' at Banksy for putting on this show when what we should be doing is congratulating Bristol Museum for hosting Banksy's work in this way.
Should You Go?
As I said earlier, I don't want to spoil the fun of the show for you and I would thoroughly recommend braving the queue to get to have a look around. So, I have only included a few of the many photos I took which you can view by clicking the link below.
The Banksy exhibition runs at Bristol Museum until 31st August and it is free to get in... just make sure you are ready to stand in line!
