Or “Banksy Vs Bristol Museum”
Fur Coat
One of the best days of this summer has involved queuing for three hours in the sun. Seriously! I went with Peet to see the exhibition at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery that Banksy has put on. I took quite a few photos – you can see them on Flickr.
Why was it so good? Firstly I think the guy’s a genius. I love the sense of irony in all his art, I love that he uses so many different media so fluently to communicate his ideas, I think that it’s great that street art evolves to have a powerful message that no-one can ignore. It was phenomenal to see the popularity of the show – almost a month into the 12 weeks it will be open, midweek, and the queue is three hours to get in. Secondly, I love that it has re-claimed a space as “cool” that has become uncool and got full families, art critics and normal people exploring the exhibits with new excitement. I hope it really has made people think about visiting other museums or galleries and that there has been “stealth learning” going on – while looking for a rat or another work, that people, kids and adults would be interested by the artifacts around them. This is the trojan effect of the exhibition, the way it can slip in some good stuff where they thought it might be just cool graffiti! There were moments shared with strangers of slightly inappropriate laughter, and times when you found a hidden treasure that no-one else in the whole museum was aware of at that moment.
I enjoyed the ribbing of authority figures, the higlighting of inconsistencies, the boldness to take a strong stance on issues that are controversial. Jumping in on things from the fox hunting ban to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict takes some stones! But to do it with humor and to place little bits around the museum so that you really have to search them out gives a reward to the viewer and a sense of achievement of having found the piece. Does this make the message more subtle or stronger – I can’t make up my mind.
The Gleaners - an Agency Job - photo on Flickr
I loved so many of the pieces, but I’ll just comment on a couple. “The Gleaners” was controversial by depicting the lower classes, and women at that, at their normal work. Banksy updates this by taking a twist of how the “lower classes” might be seen today – taking a fag break, disillusioned, out of frame. The unexpectedness of the woman being “cut out” of the frame highlights her out-of-place-ness.
Flight to Egypt - Budget Version - photo on Flickr
The Flight to Egypt depicts Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus resting as they flee to Egypt. In Banksy’s twist, they see a billboard being erected with a price for a budget airline’s price for flying to Cairo. How easy it is to forget that the simplicity of travel is a new thing, that it’s a luxury that would be impossible to describe to our ancestors. The billboard is totally out of place in the pastoral scene, yet painted in such a way that it fits right in. How did Banksy do all of this – from animatronics to huge, skillfully painted painted canvasses? Is it the work of years, or is it the produce of a team. Are they in on Banksy and his work, or in the dark on anonymous commission?
Parliament - photo on Flickr
I liked the painting of “Parliament” so much that I now have a copy (thinks Peet!) to frame. Is depicting MPs as monkeys new? Not so much. But the scale of this painting is not to be underestimated – it really is huge. It makes us think a little bit about who leads us, but at the same time about what we ourselves are like – the same? Grabbing after bananas, hooting and booing at every word. Don’t forget that the chimps in the gallery are exactly the same as those on the floor – except they have “Journalist” on their calling card.
What would it mean to have Trojan Rats in other contexts? Things that were so cool, so street, so anti-establishment that everyone would seek them out and receive a payload that got a message that they may or may not have expected. What would it meant to look at other rejected public spaces and twist them in such a way as to reclaim them. Maybe it would upset some critics or mineralogists, but it might engage a whole new generation to ideas they had never engaged with before.