Banksy vs Bristol Museum
InSITE's Cat Owczarski visited artist Banksy's exhibition in Bristol this summer
Between June and August 2009 Banksy the anonymous graffiti artist had an exhibition at Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery. Although he is famous for his graffiti Banksy’s exhibition covers a whole range of media including paintings, sculptures and installations. Banksy is a very persuasive artist; his work screams “Look at me, look at me!” and he gets his message across in a fun and un-patronising way but almost all of his pieces have an underlying message that forces you to think about what you’re seeing. It’s easy to forget how much we take for granted in our busy, modern lives but somehow those few hours I spent with Banksy’s work brought me very much down to earth.
I asked one visitor what he thought “Not only does this exhibition challenge and question people’s political views and popular British culture it shows off Banksy’s technical skills and versatility in many different art forms”.
There are several pieces that have stuck in my mind and I was quite affected by some of the work on display; some pieces made me feel sick, some made me laugh, some made me want to cry and others encouraged me to think very honestly about everyday decisions that I make.
To protect Banksy’s real identity the museum was closed ’for essential maintenance’ while the exhibition was put together and none of the staff were told what was really going on. The exhibition was centered around three main rooms but there was also pieces hidden in and around the whole museum.
