Fun and games with graffiti, art and commerce.
Banksy street art in Liverpool
You can find the most recent Liverpool Banksy, created in 2011, in a Rumsford Street car park. A biplane has just done a loop-the-loop leaving behind a heart-shaped contrail. The building is Norwich House. What’s the significance of the location? It is opposite Liverpool War Museum.
Banksy in Liverpool, Rumsford Street car park
It has recently been protected by a transparent sheet of acrylic plastic. Why the need to protect the work? Thieves? vandalism? It’s slightly odd gazing at a protected artwork whilst standing in the middle of a car park. It is now a kind of commodity. It has become something precious, something valuable. It is a Banksy.
Banksy detail, Liverpool
Banksy has struck in Liverpool before with a giant rat (on Berry Street) in 2004 for the Liverpool Biennial. The giant rat is currently covered up and the building has been bought by the Costa coffee chain. Who knows if they will keep the rat or not — rats and cafés are not the best images to throw together in one building but who knows?
Banksy at The Walker Gallery, Liverpool
Cardinal Sin by Banksy
Also, Banksy has an artwork on loan indefinitely to The Walker Gallery in Liverpool. It’s called Cardinal Sin and sits cheekily amongst the Old Masters. It demands a double-take as you walk by. It fools your eyes and brain like some modern trompe l’oeil. We have become so accustomed to judging a pixellated image as an error. Your eyes tell you immediately that something is wrong. Banksy’s artwork gives you that same feeling but in 3D and attached to the face of a classical bust – it’s quite disorienting. The work depicts the covering up of secrets within the Catholic church.
Was Banksy also inspired by the statues outside The Walker Gallery?
Eroding statues outside Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
