London - Internationally-known British graffiti artist
Banksy has pulled off his boldest stunt yet with a major exhibition
in his home city of Bristol - a project that naturally remained
anonymous and top secret until its launch. 'This is the first show
I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my
pictures up rather than scrape them off,' said the artist ahead of
the opening of Banksy Versus Bristol Museum Saturday.
Around 100 of the artist's works fill the entire space of the
city's main museum, normally used for the more conventional display
of artefacts and paintings celebrating Bristol's maritime history.
Kate Brindley, director of Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery,
said the launch had come as a bit of a relief following months of
secret preparations behind blackened windows.
The exhibition and its location had been a closely-guarded secret
since October, with just a handful of museum officials in the loop,
Brindley revealed.
'We ran a bit of a risk, but we knew it was just the right thing
for the city. He's a megastar, our home-grown hero,' she said.
Banksy was involved in setting up the exhibits and came to the
museum to oversee the installations, but staff did not know who he
was among the team setting up the show.
Bristol has had a love-hate relationship with Banksy ever since he
started spraying the city's walls and iconic buildings with graffiti
paintings in the 1990s, Bridley conceded.
But while she expected to be criticized for the decision to devote
an entire exhibition to his work, there were also many people who
'just love Banksy.'
Eye-catching works include a burned-out ice-cream van fronted by a
masked anti-terrorism police officer flashing the word 'peace' across
his uniform, and an installation of portable toilets stacked in the
shape of the ancient monument of Stonehenge. 'This show is my vision
of the future,' said Banksy.
The artist, whose works have fetched record sums at auction, has
exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Bethlehem.
His work has become highly collectable, attracting celebrity
buyers from Brad Pitt to Robbie Williams. Banksy became famous
after a series of 'guerrilla' stunts which saw him paint the West
Bank barrier and put an inflatable figure of a Guantanamo Bay
prisoner at Disney World.
Exactly who Banksy is, meanwhile, remains shrouded in mystery. But
it is known that he grew up in Bristol, and that the show is his way
of saying 'thank you' to the city.
The admission-free summer exhibition runs until August 31.
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