There’s been a serious coup here in Bristol: guerilla-artist Banksy has ‘sprung’ an exhibition on his old home town, in the city museum and art gallery. Partly because he’s wanted by police in at least six counties for decades of graffiti stunts (and by some angry museum curators who lack a sense of humour), Mr Banksy is understandably reticent to reveal his true identity. Yet he has managed to fill the whole museum and art gallery of his home town with his own take on the universe. Banksy was quoted as saying, “This is the first show I’ve ever done where taxpayers’ money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.” Whatever. All I know is that I live around the corner from the said Mueseum and Art Gallery and I’ve never seen queues and queues of people going down the road for any other exhibition in over ten years of living here. It’s a sell out, but nobody knew it was going to happen until a few days ago – true to Banksy’s way of doing things. As he comments: “This show is my vision of the future, to which many people will say: ‘You should have gone to Specsavers'” Even museum officials were kept out of the loop to protect the artist’s anonymity. So if you want to come and see it, then you can come over to my place for a cuppa (or a bed for the night) after you’ve laughed yourself stupid at the exhibo. (For overseas viewers who haven’t seen any of Banksy’s works, check out his website here.)
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