The Great Irony -
Banksy’s latest work: An ‘exhibit’ at the City Museum and Art Gallery in Bristol, England.
Watch the video. Sit through the BBC presenter’s rather watered-down explanation of the exhibit, talking about Banksy’s infamous ‘chicken nugget‘ installation as a ’sort of…statement about fast food’. The real gem is at the end (about 1:53), when you find out that the Museum’s Director, one of a few people who actually knew the exhibit was being constructed, never even met Banksy.
This is the first ‘official’ exhibit of Banksy’s work - the ‘Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill‘ was less an exhibit, and more of a reappropriation of space. While I applaud the fact that an artist so prolific within contemporary culture has now achieved official status, I can’t help lamenting that you can now take the ‘graffiti’ out of his previous title of ‘graffiti artist’. The great of great ironies? Googling graffiti artist brings up Banksy as it’s first result.
