More Banksy

Some of you will know that I queued up to see Banksy in the Bristol Museum for 45 minutes at the beginning of the summer. At the time I thought I was completely mad standing in a queue for that length of time. My first post about Banksy is here. You can see the different art that I photographed on that visit.

However by mid summer my daughter and grandsons were staying with me and I was asked if I would like to go again with them. By now, word had got round that the exhibition was outstanding and people were flocking to see it from all over Britain.

This visit we waited three hours to get in. The grandson's were very good and occupied themselves playing *I Spy* and watching the queue snake gently up and down the surrounding roads. I was astounded that they waited all that time and that they really enjoyed the visit to the museum once we all got in.

For those of you who wonder who this guy is you can go here and look this mysterious grafitti artist up.

Banksy does make a statement about life. Political things in particular and makes us aware of the suffering in the world and the pollution and mess that mankind has made.

We were not allowed to use flash so these pictures are not the best quality.

I like the way that he gets things to come out of the picture like the photos above. He is always out to shock people.

My son had taken the granddaughters to Japan for a whole month over the summer holiday and he was really looking forward to going to the Banksy exhibition when he came back. He reckoned there would be still one week left to see his work before the museum went back to normal and he thought the girls would like to see it.

However by then, the queues had jumped to a six hour wait to get in and people were not only coming from different parts of Britain but from countries overseas as well. Sam decided that it was too long to wait and he will have to make do with my photos!

So who IS this man Banksy? No one seems to know. He is very elusive and only a handful of people know him and they are all sworn to secrecy. No one knows how old he is or what he looks like. However he has made a big statement over here and I guess people either love him or hate him. No one seems to be undecided.

Graffiti!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Graffiti........ You either love it or you hate it. Looking at this scene by the waterfront I'm not sure what I think but I feel that if a wall doesn't belong to you, then you shouldn't paint on it.

The City of Bristol has its share of people leaving their stamp on blank walls and buildings, some of it very ugly and rubbishy, though in some areas there are designated places for people to use for graffiti and this seems to work well.

However, there is graffiti and graffiti...........

Recently, I found myself queuing for forty five minutes outside Bristol City Museum to see Banksy's work! Yes...... forty five minutes!

For those who haven't ever heard of him but would like to learn more, go here.

Is it really possible, though, that people have never heard of Banksy, because he is very popular in the West Country. His work is worth thousands of pounds. He is tolerated, his work is unique and Bristol is very proud of this man. No one knows who he is. He keeps himself anonymous. People reckon that he must be around forty years old, but only a few trusted people know exactly who he is!

Well, after queuing for all that time and talking to many people from other lands who had come all the way to see his work, I got into the museum, feeling very tired.

Banksy makes a statement! This is the first thing that caught my eye, a burnt out ice cream van.

At first I thought, "Oh my Goodness, he has defaced all the statues!" However, I soon realized that they wouldn't have allowed him to do that. He skillfully made replicas. I expect the originals are some where safely hidden away.

This statue was supposed to be a Roman goddess or something but Banksy had made it into a person begging on the streets.

Many things caught my eye, in particular a cage with what looked like a leopard sitting on a log, with tail swishing back and forth. However, when I went to look at it front view, it turned out to be a fur coat!

Another cage held a nest and baby birds calling to their mother. However, when I went to investigate, I noticed a cctv camera on a branch and two baby ones in a nest calling out! This seemed so typical of Banksy to to turn everything around and get people thinking.

I think I will have to go back again and take more photos.

It was all a bit too much to take in on the first visit.

As I said before, you either love this kind of thing or you hate it!

What do you think?

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek. Good idea to look them up.