I first heard of the artist Banksy in Hongkong in the 2008 when he headlined the Love Art Exhibition at the Hongkong Arts Center. He was then described as a ‘relative newcomer’ whose art was attracting celebrity collectors like Angelina Jolie. His work dominated one floor - remixed British ten-pound notes featuring a portrait of Princess Diana instead of the Queen, Kate Moss as Marilyn Monroe and the animals often featured in his work - rats, apes and elephants. His style and substance hasn’t changed much since – humorous but also a striking social critique: anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment.
I’ve been following his work since. When the boys and I visited London in 2014, we went to see
‘The Falling Shopper’ at Bruton Lane and ‘This is not a photo opportunity’ stencil near Westminster Bridge.
M was painting then and I gave him a couple of Banksy’s books for Christmas that year.
This Zürich exhibit doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it is so popular that the exhibit is being extended by 4 months, to September this year. There is plenty to enjoy but my personal highlights are the topical ones: on the European Migrant Crisis and the anti-war murals in Ukraine:
LES MISÉRABLES, 2016 with the character Cosette emerges crying behind a cloud of tear gas, a critique on the French handling of the refugee camp in Calais.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA VIEW , 2017 one of three oil paintings hanging at the WALLED OFF Hotel in Bethlehem, Palestine. It is reminiscent of a Romantic era but reworked with empty life jackets floating in a turbulent sea, invoking the drowning of thousands of migrants.
From left: Woman in her dressing gown and hair curlers wearing a gas-mask and holding a fire extinguisher, Gymnast doing a handstand on the ruins of a missile-damaged building and Putin being flipped during a judo match with a young boy, are 3 of Banksy's 7 murals near Kyiv in Ukraine.
Light relief comes from Banksy's lockdown work, titled "My wife hates it when I work from home." Banksy's distinctive rats were seen wreaking havoc in a bathroom. Rats hanging from the towel ring, stepping on a tube of toothpaste and knocking the bathroom mirror to one side. One appears to be counting the days of lockdown while another is swinging from the light cord.
This quote struck home. Have I lost that? I have raised two boys. Have I squashed that from them? If art or Art has a purpose, is it this? “You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul.” -
-George Bernard Shaw
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