Modern art: art that requires a car, an iPhone app and a sat nav
Back in England, the pursuit of Banksy continued. Whilst London appeared to be a bit too much of a widespread maze in which to get lost, Bristol – Banksy’s hometown – seemed the better option to seek out some of his work. Real life work in real life places. No prints this time.
It was to be a trip centered on technology. There are benefits, apparently.
D-man, a long time fan of Banksy’s work, downloaded the Banksy Tour iPhone app. We wove in and out of city traffic, up dead-end streets and down bustling suburb highstreets in our hire car, tapping coordinates and street names into the sat nav and scanning sides of buildings as we drove by.
Some works no longer existed, others were carefully preserved. It felt a little like a grown-up treasure hunt. Each time that we finally found a piece I was filled with an indescribable bubble of something, not too dissimilar to joy or satisfaction, maybe, and we’d park up and go and stand and stare for a few moments, occasionally muttering critiques too insignificant to report.
Maybe the most gratifying part of this urban adventure was spotting unknown works that may or may not have been anything to do with Banksy, pieces that acknowledged his style, themes and timing.
Because in amongst a sea of scribbles and expressions, there are some conscious pieces, pieces that are angry and articulate and beautiful, and they’re not all by Banksy.
Heavy weaponry – original Banksy work given a chance to fade
You can just about make out bits of an elephant with a rocket launcher on it’s back
Early Banksy contributions
A framed rat trap up a steep side street
Rose in a rat trap
The mild mild west
Well hung lover, naked man, hanging man, whatever you want to call it
Is it a Banksy? Policemen are often part of his cast, but the tag says otherwise
Banksy has previously juxtaposed children with amunition, but the tag suggests this might not be his
Shopping astronaut that we accidentally stumbled across… courtesy of Banksy?
Related articles
- On the Banksy trail in some random little art town in the Netherlands (travelola.org)
- Show me some Melbourne street art (travelola.org)
- Map of Bristol street art (bristol-street-art.co.uk)
- Bristol street art project (bristol-street-art.co.uk)
- Bristol street art tours (wherethewall.com)
- Banksy’s war on London: in pictures (telegraph.co.uk)
- Banksy mural encroached on by rival street artist (telegraph.co.uk)
- Everyone is Banksy in Bristol (fathomaway.com)
travelola 
Cool! I like to get lost when I travel, especially when I don’t speak or read the language (once in Greece) but a treasure hunt is a great way to discover a place too, especially when what you hunt is the voice of those who usually have none… Enjoy 🙂
Boubbha, the same? We reconnect a decade later through WordPress 🙂 Good to see you’re still writing. Yep, some of my best adventures have been when I don’t speak the language… at least well… such as in Bolivia… And I guess it’s still similar in this context because I’m also trying to work out the meaning of the images. Thanks for commenting and reconnecting.
I love street art. We had a street art festival in Delhi recently
Any pics? On your blog? I remember reading something through the WordPress community about the Delhi street art scene… maybe it was on yours? 🙂
On my crookedimagez blog, there are pictures. This is http://crookedimagez.me
There was, however, an international street art festival, which I intend to photograph. There will be follow ups to this. I am planning to get some artists to do workshops on 3D chalk art
Would love to see some pics of the 3D chalk art, when you get around to documenting it. I’ll keep an eye out on both your blogs. Thanks for alerting me to your other one. Just been looking through the ugly tourist section too.. interesting theme… sad how people litter our beautiful world.
Oh you make me want to get on an airplane!! 🙂
If you can, and want to, go for it 🙂
On a separate note, I wanted to say that I really respect what you’re doing with your blog – sharing a personal account of grief surely has value to many, many people.
So interesting and fun! What a great adventure. 🙂
Hey Liz, yep, a fun day in Bristol 🙂 Hope all is going well with your various blogging and writing adventures!