The People Vs Banksy

Earlier today, I posted some pictures I took at the Banksy Exhibition held in Bristol in 2009. I mentioned that I had queued for some two hours, along with many thousands more. I didn't however, mention the art project I took part in as I did so.

You may know that some of the earliest Banksy works are in Stokes Croft in Bristol, which bills itself as "Bristol's Cultural Quarter". While queuing, representatives from the "People's Republic of Stokes Croft", a local community and campaigning organisation, handed out cards on which participants could make their own artworks.

These were subsequently exhibited, which I missed, and a book has also been published - must check to see if mine made the cut! Meanwhile, you can be the judge - here's a picture of my drawing, along with the, ah, inspirational queue.

 

Andrew

Virtual Gallery - Room 6

For the next room in my eclectic online gallery, I've curated some pieces from the Banksy exhibition held in Bristol in 2009. Over the course of a few months hundreds of thousands of people queued to see the world-famous "graffiti" artist's takeover of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. 

These pictures represent a flavour of the show, although after queuing for two hours my actual time in the gallery before it closed was limited. As well as the main exhibition, there were a number of guerrilla pieces round the rest of the building - a fake poo on a plate in the ceramics exhibition, a "collector's" plate with cats on amongst the historic porcelain, a dildo inserted into a row of stalagmites in the geology section.

The exhibition's Information Desk

What does a Bishop wear under his Cassock?

Not on Canvas Any More...

 

Improved Spot Painting - Damien Hirst and "Local Artist"

No caption required!

For previous posts featuring Banksy, just follow this link and this one too. There's also more on the exhibition on the BBC website.

Andrew

From Stokes Croft to Springfield, Banksy's come a long way!

From Stokes Croft in Bristol to Los Angeles, Banksy has carved out an international reputation as the controversial as a graffiti and street artist who simultaneously commands huge sums for his work while critiquing capitalism. His true identity is a better kept secret than The Stig's was (even before he revealed himself as fellow Bristolian Ben Collins) and this only adds to the interest in his work. For last year's show at Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery, people queued for up to six hours to see the specially commissioned exhibition.

Now he's created a controversial version of The Simpsons opening credits.  As well as Banksy graffiti adorning the walls of Springfield and his trademark rats, he inserts comment on the use of Far Eastern labour to create the animation cells and the extensive merchandising that accompanies the show. It is this latter section which will cause a fuss - depicting poor working conditions for the Korean animators and kittens being shredded to provide stuffing for Bart Simpson dolls.

It's certainly not to everyone's tastes - including, one suspects, some of the Fox executives! 


As the You Tube clip I linked to got removed for copyright reasons, here's the BBC story complete with video (which may be UK only).

5 on the 5th for July

Here's my entry for Stephen's 5 on the 5th. This month's suggested theme was either "this past weekend" or "I don't like Mondays"...

Unfortunately, I had a lazy weekend of doing not terribly, so nothing photo-worthy there. It's not fair to say I don't like Mondays either - so here are some photos taken in my lunchtime when I went out for a short walk.


From top to bottom:

• Sign on the door of an empty shop
• Bristol Cathedral
• An original Banksy
• 17th Centuary Alms Houses
• Street Art

Hope you enjoyed and make sure and follow this link to see the other entries.


Andrew