Edited by Yuwen Wang
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- Curator Meiling Liu
Curated by Meiling Liu, ‘The Art of Banksy’ is the world’s largest touring exhibition of the street artist’s work. It opened in London’s Covent Garden in May 2021. Walking through the darkened basement near Covent Garden, you’ll witness the evolution of his distinct stencilling style, greater appreciation for his recurring motifs, and learn about some of the artist’s more transgressive acts.
The Curator Miss Liu has been bold, Charismatic and willing to take risks. She turned the 12000-square-foot warehouse into an exciting Art of Banksy Exhibition. It brings together numerous original works on loan from private collectors. Upon entry, viewers are greeted by darkened interiors, with black walls and strong lighting cast over the pieces and classic Britpop records playing through a speaker. Viewers are invited to journey through the artist’s career, observing early canvases and sculptures dating back to the late 90s through to the easily recognisable modern-day murals that have popped up in cities across the UK.
A focal point of the exhibition, Banksy’s clever blend of the humorous and the political is referenced throughout, alongside his ability to completely change the tone of a piece with a single element such as is done in ‘Flower Thrower’ and ‘Christ with Shopping Bags. Viewers also have the opportunity to view some of Banksy’s most famous works including ‘Girl with Balloon’, a piece known for being shredded at auction in 2018 after being sold for over £1m, symbolising the artist’s difficult relationship with the traditional art world, as well as Rude Copper, a print from 2002 created in response to the 2000 Terrorism Act.
Viewers are also prompted to remember the numerous subversive stunts Banksy has pulled throughout his career including when the artist took 500 copies of Paris Hilton’s album and customised it, placing a sticker on the cover making mention of tracks including “Why Am I Famous?”, “What Have I Done?”, and “What Am I For?”, songs Banksy had tapped DJ Danger Mouse to remix the songs.
This section is interesting but causes something of a bottleneck as visitors stop to read the text and strain to see if they can see Banksy in one of the photos hanging on the wall.
Once you get past this section, however, the exhibition space opens up, and you’re greeted with dozens of Banksy artworks.
The exhibition also tracks the numerous exhibitions Banksy organised including the Cans Festival in 2008, a 3-day exhibition which featured the works of other graffiti artists and the notorious Dismaland in 2015, a dystopian theme park dubbed “the UK’s most disappointing new visitor attraction”.
An exhibition which brings together over 80 Banksy works, this is not one to be missed.
Location:
50 Earlham St, West End, London WC2H 9LJ, 20 May 2021 – 21 November 2021
由劉美玲策劃的“班克斯的藝術”是世界上最大的街頭藝術家作品巡迴展覽，於 2021 年 5 月在倫敦的考文特花園開幕。穿過考文特花園附近的黑暗地下室，您將見證他獨特的模板風格的演變，對他反復出現和使用的主題有更多的了解，並了解這位藝術家的一些前衛的創作。
策展人劉小姐非常大膽，有魅力，願意冒險。她將 12000 平方英尺的倉庫變成了令人興奮的班克斯藝術展。它匯集了許多從私人收藏家借來的原創作品。進入後，映入眼簾的是黑暗的內部空間，黑色的牆壁和強烈的燈光投射在作品上，以及通過揚聲器播放的經典英式流行唱片。觀眾可以隨著展覽了解藝術家的整個職業生涯，作品可追溯到 90 年代後期的早期畫布和雕塑，以及在英國各城市出現的易於識別的現代壁畫。
作為展覽的焦點，班克西巧妙地將幽默與政治融為一體，同時他也有能力用單一元素完全改變作品的基調，例如在“Flower Thrower”和“Christ with Shopping Bags”中所做的。觀眾還有機會欣賞班克斯最著名的一些作品，包括《帶氣球的女孩》，這幅作品在 2018 年以超過 100 萬英鎊的價格在拍賣會上被撕碎，象徵著這位藝術家與傳統藝術界的艱難關係。作為粗魯的銅，2002 年為響應 2000 年恐怖主義法案而創作的印刷品。
觀眾還被提示記住班克斯在他的整個職業生涯中所做的無數顛覆性創意，包括藝術家拿走了帕麗斯·希爾頓專輯的 500 份拷貝並對其進行了定制，在封面上貼了一張貼紙，提到了包括“我為什麼出名？”在內的曲目， “我做了什麼？”和“我是為了什麼？”，這些歌曲班克斯請 DJ Danger Mouse 重新混音。
這部分很有趣，但造成了一些瓶頸，因為遊客停下來閱讀文字並緊張地查看他們是否能在牆上掛著的一張照片中看到班克斯。
然而，一旦你通過這個部分，展覽空間就會打開，迎接你的是數十件班克斯的藝術品。
該展覽還追踪了班克斯組織的眾多展覽，包括 2008 年的罐頭節，一個為期 3 天的展覽，展示了其他塗鴉藝術家的作品，以及 2015 年“臭名昭著”的 《Dismaland》，一個被稱為“英國最令人失望的新旅遊景點”的反烏托邦主題公園。
整個展覽匯集了 80 多件班克斯的經典作品，不容錯過。
