Ghost of a flea

Tate Modern

The Turbine Hall is the most impressive feature of the Tate Modern, a gallery housed in the converted Bankside Power Station. It is host currently to a peculiar atmospheric piece called The Weather Project. Another reason for the Flea to miss London (though I did get to see Anish Kapoor's peculiar installation in the same hall).

In contrast with the Unilever sponsored showpiece exhibit was an impromptu display by Banksy, an agit-prop and graffiti artist. Banksy's work strikes the Flea to be less creative than any given day at b3ta. His marketable politics look like more commercial anti-pop to me. Even so, I like the idea of do-it-yourself accession to museum and gallery collections.

The stunt was planned with precision and executed with aplomb. Disguised as a pensioner, Britain's favourite graffiti artist, Banksy, shuffled into Tate Britain and stuck one of his own creations on to a gallery wall.

The picture - a small oil painting of a bucolic scene disfigured by blue and white tape to represent a police line - might have still been there had the glue not proven too weak. After several hours hanging next to a 19th century landscape, Banksy's painting, entitled Crimewatch UK Has Ruined the Countryside For All of Us, crashed to the floor and the stunt was discovered.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 18, 2003 10:47 AM