Banksy VS Bristol City Museum

So this is the giant queue that greeted Jady and I as we found our way toward the museum… I checked the Bristol City council website and it stated to be prepared for queueing for around 1 hour. So since we came all the way to Bristol for this, we joined the que and it took an hour and half to get in.

Those of you that are Banksy fans will know that he had a show in NY last year, so the Bristol show has all of those what I’ve been calling “moving sculptures” or “animated sculptures” as well as many guerilla paintings and non animated sculptures and works.

Spoilers alert – If you intend to see the show for yourself and don’t want this to spoil it for you then please do go any further, because I have taken photos of EVERYTHING!

As you enter the Museum.

Buddha’s had a rough day

The main hall as you entered is filled with these sculpture/installation works, the ice cream van served as the information desk. The SWAT guy on the horsy was particularly creepy, the horsy rocked back and forth producing a squeaky sound. I had a close look at the mannequins face, it was very life like and completely creeped me out.

The first room had many large scale complex stencil works, many paintings and a few installations. The most interesting was a little caged room that I suppose is meant to be Banksy’s living room. With a knit jumper that says “thug for life” draping on the back of a rocking chair, loads and stencils and an audio loop of a radio talk show that had audience call in discussing the “art” of Banksy. I felt like you got a glimpse of what the man himself thought about the media circus that’s played out around him and his fame.

The second room was filled with cages containing “animated sculptures”, these got lots of giggles out of people. It’s hard to explain but each piece moved a little repeated movement.

Featherless tweety blinked a little, he looked so so miserable that it makes you want to take your own life.

The 2 cocktail sausages on the top right of the stone, in 1 sequence of action seemed to be humping, yes I’m pretty sure they were humping…

These look pretty normal static, but the way they wriggled was absolutely disgusting but also fascinating.

In stead of the monkey watching monkey porn that NY had, we unfortunately got a family friendly monkey painting. Pppfffttttt! So much more tame.

These photos of mine don’t do the works justice, so please take out a few minutes and watch these youtube clips, you’ll see just how funny and how Banksy they are.

Now these 2 rooms were the main areas where his works were, but throughout the museum he’s littered many more works. You just got to keep your eyes open and look for them.

Spot the odd one

Prehistoric cave painting

The evolution of mankind

Tucked away amongst the museum’s real collection of serious paitings are many guerilla paintings by Banksy.

Would you like a like a lolipop or…?

There were 250 or some number like that soldiers on this work and 1 terrorist. We failed to locate the terrorist, so please send in more troops.

So did I enjoy the show? Indeed I did, but after lining up for the longest time in my life amongst mostly middle aged parents with their 8 years old sons and daughters, I can’t help but feel that Banksy is now absolutely mainstream and therefore no longer cool. So like all scenesters do, I will now abandon ship and claim that I am no longer a Banksy fan. But shhh just between you and me, the dude’s a genius and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

What? I didn’t say that… Banksy is like-oh-so over! Oh well, shit happens.

Banksy VS Bristol Museum is on til 31 August 2009. Do pop in if you are around, well worth the wait. More info on Banksy site here, or here on the Bristol Museum site.

the plan forth

Today will be my last day of work for a while. I’ve freelancing for the past month or so if you didn’t know, full time, with a few overtime late nights too, I’m not used to this 9-6, not at all.

So, next Wednesday I depart for Ireland with Jady and Markus joins us on Friday, we’ll hire a car, drive around a bit and return on the Monday after.

Around 29th or 30th I depart for France for a month. I’ll be heading straight into Pyrénées, for a farm I’ve arranged to stay at for 3 weeks. I volunteer my work, they put me up and feed me. It’s a small family, young couple, a few kids, in the mountains, perfect. Pyrénées is right by the Spanish border, deep down south of France. According to Julien, it’s in the middle of nowhere and I will be forced to learn and speak French, again, perfect. But 2 minor/major things, the family is vegetarian and there’s no internet in the house. o_O We’ll see how I survive. After the farm stay, I’ll travel upwards in France a bit, Lyon, Paris, etc.

From Paris, I plan to fly to Scandinavia, take 2 weeks in beginning of September to travel around a few selected spots and Iceland.

From there I’ll get myself back downwards to Munich for a few days for Oktoberfest! Woo! Just about everyone I know in London will be there, or perhaps the entire British population will be there?!

Then it’s back to London for a few days as my folks arrive on the 26th Sept. We’ll stay in London for a week or so, fly up to Germany, then drive all the way down to Spain, through Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France then fly back to London. 6 weeks with my parents, most of it in a car!!! Am I mad? I don’t know…

Together with my parents, we will fly to New York. West coast, east coast, Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto. Then they fly back to Sydney, I stay on for a bit.

So that’ll be none stop on the road for me all the way til November. WOW! It’s a bit scary to think about actually. November and December I’ll stay in NY, enjoy the winter, be a loner for Christmas or join where the homeless go perhaps. Hehe, can’t wait to photograph NY in winter, will be awesome. New year’s eve in Time Square, now that I must do.

In January I’ll head to South America, I’d like to visit Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Then it’s back to LA briefly before heading to Fiji for a quick 2 night relaxing stopover and then onto home, Sydney.

Gosh… it sounds a lot more scary typed out then in my head… A lot more awesome too.

Yay yay yay! Makes me very excited to think about this giant adventure ahead. Happy travels!

2 months on

Funny, this thing they call time. I’ve been overseas for over 2 months now, it feels like it’s been a long long time since I left Sydney airport, yet I can remember V and I at the airport sharp and clear like it’s yesterday and yet it has only been 2 out of 9 months. I miss Sydney very much, I just really didn’t think I’d miss it as much as I do.

London on the other hand, I’m slowly discovering bit by bit and I’ll have to admit, I’m slowly falling in love with the place bit by bit. It’s sometimes chaotic, often eccentric, and always energetic, which makes the perfect brew for me. Just now I took a walk to Primrose Hill after dinner, a nice warm evening with a nice slow stroll, a few photos, a nice sunset, topped off with a cone of Italian toffee ice cream from a 75 years old shop How could I not enjoy the place.

I do often forget I’m in London though, I may have mentioned this before but the place is so damn similar to Sydney. However earlier in the week I couldn’t have had a stronger reminder. I’ve been working at a small digital agency in London Bridge, at lunch, I got my salad, was about to sit down and eat when a few colleagues spotted me asked me to join them to go and eat on the grass. It was a sunny hot day, we walked between 2 big office buildings and low and behold the grass looks right onto at the London Bridge. Sure I’d seen it from the distance before but I hadn’t seen it up close yet and there I am, eating my lunch while looking at London Bridge! I find myself having surreal moments like that.

Enough of that, let me give you a low down on some of my recent food adventures.

Photos by Yasinta

On my brithday, Jady, Yasinta and I descended onto Taste London Festival and gorged on many many things. It was a huge event for me as I had my first ever truffle and foie gras, unfortunately both were underwhelming. One of my highlights was a cold pea and broad bean soup with almond bread from Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester. Reading their menu, it sounds quite safe and lacklustre but since I can’t actually afford to eat at the Dorchester any time soon and that I can’t possibly pass on tasting an Alain Ducasse creation, I decided to try the soup. It was refreshing, summery, tasty and just simply great.

Another highlight was ash baked celeriac from I can’t remember where… but it was amazingly tasty! Who knew the humble celeriac could be so damn yummy. We also found out that 3 girls ordering 1 single portion meant we got extra large portions! hehehehehehehe muahahahahahahahaha

Last weekend I went to St John at Spitafields for dinner with Sissi and David. I honestly haven’t been this stuffed in a long time, except for the several occasions I at Norman and Joyce’s of course. The spitafield restaurant adopts the same nose to tail eating idea, but the menu had much more than pork. We ate venison, ox heart, lamb breast, quail, fish roe and pig skin, that’s just the meat stuff. It was all delicious. I could barely fit in some peach jelly as dessert, my dessert stomach had almost entirely been used by the savoury stuff. Those who know me will know, that almost never happens, there is always room for dessert. But nonetheless by the end it took us forever to eat our desserts and I had to sigh an awful lot, because I was so full, have to say, sighing doesn’t make room in the stomach.

Note: I just checked the Dorchester website, I can actually afford to eat a 3 course lunch there, hmm, now now, who wants to go with me?!