THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
On Sunday July 30th, I went with my husband and ten-year-old son to the Banksy stencil exhibition at GoMA, the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art. First, let me say that the exhibition is fantastic – one of the best I have ever seen – and well worth a visit if you can get a ticket. All three of us enjoyed it and my son left inspired to make his own graffiti, an impulse we’ve had to thwart after catching him drawing on his bedroom furniture.
Congratulations to GoMA, who won the exhibition because the city it’s in has a sense of humor. Have a look at the statute of the Duke of Wellington outside the museum, which wears a traffic cone on its head. No matter how many times the authorities remove it, the people of Glasgow always put it back. Around 40 years and running!
If you aren’t aware already, Banksy is the pseudonym of an unknown artist who has risen to fame through his jaw-dropping graffiti, mostly on buildings in the UK and USA. His art does something strange to your brain. The image you take in at first glance is only partial, for example, a lifelike representation of a small child. Your first thought is something along the lines of “oh, how sweet” or “should I call social services?” Then you start processing the details around it, like the balloon drifting away or the sign the child is holding. Then you notice the language on the sign or the setting of the child and a message starts to seep through. This graffiti is saying something, and it is almost always jarring. Sometimes the message is funny (satirically so) and sometimes it is poignant and sad. His favorite themes, as far as I can tell, are war, police brutality, oppression, and poverty.
But back to the exhibition. From start to finish, the ambiance is a bit sinister, like something perhaps not life-threatening but possibly unpleasant is going to jump out at you around each bend. On entry you are in a version of his workshop, with thumping hip hop and a coffee cup on the table reminding you that “You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyoncé.” The walls are mostly dark as you move from room to room. And it’s not all graffiti stencils; there are some installations such as a stuffed policewoman (I think) on a high pedestal riding a hobbyhorse. Banksy explains how he started in his work (revenge) and why he continues (if it ain’t broke…). Most significantly, Banksy’s voice is omnipresent, with quotes and explanations throughout. At the end you walk through his own adolescent bedroom, which I won’t spoil with a description.
Banksy lets us know he is self-aware. He understands his place in the art world and doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is part of his magic. He even provides us with a wall comprised entirely of online comments from people who hate his work and threaten him with violence. The best was from “Big Ron Weehole” whose comment was simply, “BRING BACK THE BIRCH.” It’s shocking that some people can’t appreciate quality vandalism when they see it.
I also noticed several references to accommodation in Bethlehem (that’s right – in Palestine) called the Walled Off Hotel [say it out loud – ed]. It turns out that Banksy invested in an art hotel right up against the wall policed by Israeli military. You have to read about it to believe it: The Walled Off Hotel.
To add value to the ticket, while you are not allowed to take photos of your own, the security guards in the largest room have Polaroid cameras and will take your photo with the pieces, and give it to you free of charge. You also have the opportunity to make your own graffiti in the exit, where paint markers are attached to the walls at short intervals. I wrote what popped into my head at the time, and I cannot account for it. I left it untagged, so as to remain very mysterious.
