Monday, 31 December 2012

Is Banksy Back In Bristol?

By Hashim Javier


After years away painting in far off corners of the world and establishing a celebrity fan base and reputation to rival any living artist, it looks as though Banksy has returned to his home city with a new piece to celebrate the Queens Golden jubilee.

The piece depicts an image of Queen Elizabeth's head circa 1970, adorned with a David Bowie-inspired coloured lightning bolt strike running down the front of her face. The piece seems to be trademark tongue-in-cheek Banksy, but this remains to be confirmed.

The new piece has been painted on the same area of wall as one of his famous earlier pieces showing a police sniper taking aim with a young boy standing next to him, which was painted over by 'Team Robbo' a couple of months previously.

Banksy originally painted his sniper piece on the wall where it remained for years before Team Robbo painted over his work just a few weeks ago, working under the guise of King Robbo, with whom Banksy has had a long running and well documented rivalry.

Team Robbo are a collective of artists working in conjunction with King Robbo who have helped the much respected artist spread his work across the country as well as attacking Banksy's work across the UK and beyond.

Very little is known about Banksy's life, although he is known to have grown up and started his artistic journey in Bristol with many of his pieces on display across the city, including several in Easton, where it is believed he spent many of his teenage years.

Some of his most popular Bristol pieces include, a grim reaper stencilled onto the side of a boat, a teddy bear holding a Molotov cocktail a naked man hanging from a window to avoid an angry husband and a Gorilla wearing a pink masquerade style mask.

Banksy has long since been a significant tourist attraction, with countless people visiting Bristol in order to see and document his work. The new piece has already seen a significant number of people visit the city in the hope that is turns out to be a genuine Banksy. As to whether or not it is only time will tell.




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