There are so many thoughts and questions prompted by a visit to The Art of Banksy: Without Limits, which is now ensconced in Melbourne’s Docklands, following runs in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, and before arriving in Perth. Prior to arriving in Australia, it also raked in the dollars and viewers in Europe, the US, South America and Asia.
But out of context, and just focusing on the exhibition itself, the visitor experience is an overwhelmingly positive one. Yes, it’s repetitive, with particular images and motifs turning up again and again in various formats, throughout the exhibition, but that’s the artist’s trademark. And that aside, there are so many pieces here that it gives a fantastically comprehensive and informative overview of his career to date.
Banksy, who of course, remains officially anonymous, has been a massively influential street artist and political activist since the 1990s and in that time has produced countless attention-grabbing and zeitgeist-defining images and installations. And so many of them are referenced and reproduced in this exhibition. Scores of his most arresting works are revealed and explained – from his early images such as the teddy bear flinging a molotov cocktail at riot police, via the kissing policemen and the girl with the heart-shaped balloon to later extravaganzas, such as the rat infested COVID bathroom, hilariously satirical “bemusement” park, Dismaland, which drew hordes of punters to Weston-Super-Mare in 2015, and the brilliantly subversive real-life accommodation option, Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem.
Travelling through the exhibition it becomes clear just how much art Banksy has created and how wildly inventive and talented he really is. When it comes to capturing a moment, a profound political thought, a righteous fury, in one single simple image, he’s up there with the greatest cartoonists of all time.
It’s a brilliant experience and, on content alone, one that’s hard to criticise.
However… there are those other thoughts. There is, to begin with, a definite air of the exhibition being rather hastily and sloppily thrown together. The title cards have typos and mistakes and the very venue may not be quite Melbourne’s version of Dismaland, but it’s true that for the shopping arcade beneath the disused and woebegone wheel, Tumbleweed Town would be an apt moniker.
And then there’s the fact that the whole thing is not endorsed by the artist himself, and is instead a purely commercial enterprise resulting from a partnership between Muse Marketing and Entertainment and the global promotional specialist Fever – the same outfit that brought us Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience and, even more recently, Jurassic World: the Exhibition. But with both of those immersive exhibitions having clear copyright provenance, presumably there was a considerable outlay for the licences. If Banksy won’t show his face and produces street art, does this mean the event promoters are able to just reproduce his work willy-nilly and rake in the profits?
And those profits are considerable. The ticket prices for this exhibition alone are steep – $41 per ‘adult’ (and by adult they mean 13-plus) and $27 for children aged from 3-12. There is a special deal for Father’s Day, however, so if you pop along this Sunday, you could get two tickets for $20.50.
It wouldn’t be the greatest stretch to say this is purely a money-making exercise. And one that would have been a lot more professionally designed and thoughtfully installed had it been in, say, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)…
But then again… on top of all of this is the thought that the haphazard display and less than polished presentation, and the underwhelming venue, actually fit much better with Banksy’s entire ethos. Indeed, one of his best known quotes is: ‘The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules, but by people following the rules.’ If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be the height of hypocrisy for him to complain about anyone capitalising on his work in order to tour their own successful exhibition?
Read: Exhibition review: No Vacancy Annual, No Vacancy
And he does get something out of it. His fame and his influence increase, his reputation soars and, perhaps most importantly for Banksy, there’s a lot of time and space given to a hugely significant personal project – the Louise Michel. There must be many visiting The Art of Banksy: Without Limits who were previously unaware of the migrant rescue boat he has funded and which now sails the Mediterranean, helping those seeking asylum to safety onshore. They may even be persuaded to cough up a few dollars in donations. After all if they could afford this exhibition, they’re clearly not short of a bob or two…
The Art of Banksy: Without Limits is running in Melbourne now at Level 1, The District in Docklands and has been extended to mid October.
