Banksy

Saturday morning George and I woke up at 7AM. I know what you're thinking - why the hell would we deliberately wake up so early on a Saturday morning? The reason - a museum featuring a graffiti artist, Banksy. Banksy is a graffiti artist from Bristol that leaves his trace all over the UK, and to a lesser extent, the entire world. No one knows who Banksy is - could be a man or a woman, could be several people. What we do know is that you go to bed one night and you wake up with an image of two life size police officers making out or a fake window with someone falling out of it or a rat on a throne proclaiming, "Long live the king!" He's become quite a cult sensation here in the UK, so much that many people who get their building tagged by Bansky are actually quite excited about the whole thing. These same people would surely try to clean anyone else's graffiti on their wall, but not Banksy. (Of course, much of his work has been erased, but usually not before someone at least photographs it).

Due to Banksy's popularity, the Bristol Museum has given Banksy her/his own exhibit and even let her/him randomly place pieces of his work throughout the entire museum's collection no doubt to promote the museum's collection to people who otherwise would never dream of going to the museum. According to George's parents, there's never been anything at the museum that has caused massive lines or even small lines (or queues as they call them here), but the same can not be said of Banksy. George and I got to the queue at 8:15AM. We were already behind hundreds of people despite the fact that the museum didn't even open until 10AM. No joke, within one minute of George and I being there, there were 15 more people behind us. I'm not sure I've even seen such a line in New York City, not even for free Shakespeare in the Park tickets. It was a bit chilly, but luckily the weather was pretty decent. (A few days later, I passed by the queue and saw hundreds of people waiting in the rain. Sadness, but determination!). Since the museum didn't open for a while, the line wasn't moving, so we sat down like most people and cozied up on the sidewalk. George stepped out of the line for a minute to get a newspaper to read while we were waiting. I read about Scottish compassion (aka desire for oil), the economy recovering, and lots of useless info like, "Studies show women are more attracted to men who look like them." Oh, the news. Then George and I knocked out a good crossword, and still the museum hadn't opened. I left the line to get some coffee and contemplated how it must feel to be the people at the back of the line.

We didn't actually get into the museum until 12:15, a good four hour wait. I don't think I've ever waited in a line so long for anything in my life, not even at Six Flags (although I'm sure it's pretty close). Luckily the wait didn't feel like four hours. I guess cause I had my favorite person to share it with! (You may all vomit now). Once we got in the museum, I noticed a sign that read, "The museum does not support or condone any form of illegal activity, regardless of its artistic merit." Hmmm, you don't support illegal activity, but your featuring a graffiti artist and her/his work, promoting the hell out of it, and even letting her/him alter your non-exhibition collection? We'll just accept that subtle wink that's no doubt hidden somewhere in that disclaimer.

George and I walked into the main exhibition gallery with nothing but Banksy. Without going on and on, I'll just point out some of my favorite things. First, Banksy clearly has a political agenda concerning how our society views animals. There were cages all over the room each meant to make us examine our perception of the animal world. In the first, there were animatronic hot dogs that moved just like animals, doing things like drinking out of a water hole, bathing, and even humping. Another cage had what appeared to be a leopard lounging on a tree branch, swinging its tail to and fro, but it turned out to be a leopard-skin coat. Another cage had a fish bowls with fish sticks swimming around inside. Another had a rabbit looking at itself in the mirror and putting on lipstick and blush and filing its nails. Clever stuff. It's a bit disturbing to look at, but I think it's wonderful that Banksy's giving people a little dose of reality. Next we moved on to the statues. Banksy presented very classical forms, what one would imagine from Ancient Greece or Rome, but then s/he would alter them to reflect what we idealize today. Some statues were carrying shopping bags and wearing fancy sunglasses. Another was drinking out of a paper cup and was surrounded by fast food waste all around them. Another statue had dynamite strapped to his body. Hot.

We then moved on to the Banksy's picture room which was filled with many delights. The first thing that caught my eye was a picture of a tiger skin rug with Tony the Tiger's goofy-ass smiling face put onto it. Then I saw a grandma sweater on which Banksy had written "Thug for Life." Oh, the power of words. I really liked this picture of two small sad African children working in the mud wearing shirts that said, "I hate Mondays." That was right next to a picture of a little African child pulling two fat white people in a carriage. The fat white people were laughing with their camera phone pointed at the two of them to capture this moment on their journey. Another picture I particularly liked was one of a graffiti artist/disgruntled worker who was spray painting on a wall, "Workers of the world unite!" whilst a janitor stood next to him with a peeved look on his face that he would have to clean it up. Right next to that was a picture of a beautiful landscape with a towering mountain in the background. Next to the mountain was an asterik which read at the bottom, "Available for a limited time only." Classic. There were others that were noteworthy as well, but I just don't feel like writing about every little thing I saw. If you want to see some of his work, just search for "Banksy" in google images. You may not find the things in the museum since the museum probably doesn't want people to see his work on display that could be at the museum. But you'll get the idea!