Undoubtedly encouraged by the $16 million tourist dollars brought in by the “Banksy Versus Bristol Museum” exhibition, the city plans to protect illegal paintings that the public votes to preserve. Before graffiti and street art is buffed, the City Council plans to post photos of the illicit art to its website for public comment. Except for “offensive and unsightly graffiti,” work that “[makes] a positive contribution to the local environment” will not be painted over. Read more »
Hours after shooting up one of Banksy’s murals, unknown vandals struck again, firing shots at the millionaire street artist’s “Mild Mild West” piece in Bristol. Similar to yesterday’s attack on his “Windows Lovers” painting, blue paintballs were splattered across the work—earlier this year it was splashed with washable red paint by Appropriate Media. While a local politician was busy cleaning off the ‘Lovers’, the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft got to work cleaning the latest barrage.
Photo via BBC
Banksy fans continue making the pilgrimage to his big Bristol Museum exhibition, but not everyone is enamored with the semi-anonymous street artist. Last night, shots were fired at one of his local illegal paintings, “Window Lovers,” a naked man hanging out while a cuckolded husband and wife peer out the window. The blue paintball attack comes a little more than two months after a local group called Appropriate Media splashed Banksy’s “Mild Mild West” mural with washable red paint as some incomprehensible protest. While nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the latest attack, city officials plan to similarly restore the Banksy painting, a “tourist attraction” that draws “people from around the world.”
Photo via This is Bristol
Following this morning’s photo and video preview, here’s footage of “Banksy Versus Bristol Museum,” an enormous exhibit taking place in the elusive street artist’s hometown. Instead of an overexcited host explaining away the art, you get Banksy and his assistants smashing statues and putting the finishing touches on the show.
Tomorrow, the Bristol Museum opens without their regular artifacts. In their place: robotic cops, a burned out ice cream truck, Guantanamo prisoner effigies, animatronic animals and the sort of tongue-in-cheek pseudo-political paintings you’ve come to expect from millionaire street artist Banksy. Of the roughly 100 works on display in “Banksy versus Bristol Museum,” more than 70 of the pieces are brand new, while some others, like the portable toilets from Bog Henge and chicken nuggets from the Village PetStore & Charcoal Grill, are reworked. Pulling off the hometown show in secrecy meant keeping all but a few people in the dark, including Museum staff and city officials for who the show’s takeover is a surprise. The BBC helps break the silence with a video tour below as well as photos of the new exhibit. Read more »
An intrepid street art enthusiast ventured down to Bristol’s City Museum to confirm rumors it would be hosting Banksy’s summer show. Through a gap in the windows he snapped a shot of part of the elusive street artist’s 2007 portable toilet stonehenge, which helps explain the “2 Girls 1 Cup”-style ice cream cone on his website’s announcement. |Bristol Street Art|
When the Bristol City Council illegally buffed a legal mural commissioned by The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, they painted back. The arts-centric urban renewal group stenciled a call to action on top of the black void the city’s Clean and Green Team left over the “Hope” mural by artists Cheo and 3Dom, encouraging residents to speak up against city-sponsored censorship of legal public art. It’s a bold response that could be employed by any community facing destruction of their art. |PRSC|
Images via Bristol Graffiti
A Bristol group called Appropriate Media is outraged by gentrification-causing graffiti writers. So much so that they’re actually protesting. The anonymous group splashed washable red paint on a Banksy mural entitled “The Mild Mild West” over the weekend, and nobody understands what they want.
Graffiti artists are the performing spray-can monkeys for gentrification. In collusion with property developers, they paint deprived areas bright colours to indicate the latest funky inner city area ripe for regeneration. Pushing out low income families in their wake, to be replaced by middle class metrosexuals with their urban art collections.
Editor-in-Chief:
Bucky Turco
Contributors:
Copyranter
Kari Ferrell
Marina Galperina
Website design:
Michael Ian Weinfeld
