Banksy
I visited the Banksy exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. I think his work is great and his way with a soundbite is entertaining and thought-provoking. He was quoted around the exhibition and there were moments when I had to laugh. I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve only ever seen pictures of his work so to see the stencils and to gain an understanding of how he developed as an artist was a real treat for me. I bought the book of the exhibition and got a free bag with it which is cool. Inside the book Banksy notes that his favourite piece of art in the UK is the cone placed on top of the statue of the Duke of Wellington which is outside the Gallery. Despite the council removing it many times, a new one always appears and now it has become an icon, recognised world-wide. This was why he chose to have his exhibition here.
I was stunned by the crowds. I started queuing at eight am for a walk-in ticket as I couldn’t get one online anymore. It seemed the whole of Scotland was intent on getting in before it closed. I had naively imagined that as the exhibition was coming to a close, it would be quieter. Anything but. It was even open through the night such was the demand. By the time I got to the front a little over an hour later I was offered the half past one slot and when I asked if there was any chance of anything earlier, the assistant quickly checked and then told me I had just missed the half one but I could have quarter to two. I took it!
My backpack was searched on the way in, and as there was no photography allowed inside, I had to place my phone inside a security bag which was sealed and then carried around. Once into the exhibition, for me, everything was a highlight. Some of it was new to me, some very familiar. On the way out, I retrieved my phone from the bag and then scrawled my name on the wall using a pen provided for the purpose.
I came away rejuvenated. This was a shot in the arm for want of a better cliché for my own creative efforts. The act of doing what you can do and putting it out there regardless of what you may hope people will make of it is all you can do. The exhibition opens with reproductions of some dreadful comments that have been made online about Banksy and his art. If he had listened to them, there would have been no exhibition and the 180,000 people that attended over the last ten weeks would have been poorer for it.
The image to go with this post was one I took of the statue of the Duke of Wellington on the day I attended. A new cone appeared just after this when the exhibition closed and there was speculation that this was the work of Banksy. It turns out it wasn’t, but no matter. There was a quote from Banksy that suggested it has reached a point where is was not so much about the painting but events that unfold around it. This story about the cone after the exhibition is an example of that and made me smile.
The Fiction Factory 