ART

Sneaking around the streets, we find a man of mystery, hood up, tunnel-visioned on pursuing his own obsessive interest, to the delight of his ever-increasing legions of fans. No, not Bansky. Martin Bull. Who? You know, Martin Bull, the man who wrote ‘Banksy Locations and Tours Vol 1’, the staggeringly successful and impressively comprehensive guide to the whereabouts and back-stories of 65 of Banksy’s best works in London. Now he’s written Vol 2, which gathers 135 more of Banksy’s street works from the present and recent past, from right across the UK (with postcodes and GPS references and everything) – including a handy walking tour of Bristol – plus “a bit of history, random facts and idle chit-chat”. It’s an eminently likeable book, full of down-to-earth humour and unexpected trivia. Martin donates a significant proportion of the proceeds to charities including Bristol Mind (www.bristolmind.org.uk) and a new project called Merls, which helps rural communities in Ethiopia. Here he talks to Mike White about some of the Banksys featured in volume two of his book...

Grim Reaper/‘The Silent Highwayman’ BS1 5LW “The story goes that one night in May 2003, Banksy went out rowing and painting. After he had done a message about the slave trade on a nearby bridge, he made the ‘slowest getaway in criminal history’ and did a ‘Banksy!’ throw up on the side of the Thekla. Soon after, the Harbour Manager… looked at it with city councillors and they ordered its removal. It was allegedly painted over rather hastily and the Thekla were not too happy about this as they had quite liked it. Before the situation could get too out of hand Banksy ‘went back and dropped a grim reaper in a rowing boat on the same spot in the hope we can lure him [the Harbour Manager] out and go for the full custodial sentence this time’. The image of the reaper seems to be based on a 19th-century etching illustrating the pestilence of The Great Stink in 1858 (when raw sewage made the River Thames stink like Ashton ValeJ). It was used by Punch magazine on 10 July 1858 and was entitled ‘The Silent Highwayman’.”

The New Pollution/Pure Class BS2 9QS “This was on a wall on Sevier Street for almost 10 years before a housing development came along and suddenly knocked it down in August/September 2006. The mural included what looked like a giant jasper (a wasp to those not from the West Country) wearing a gas mask and has ‘Dedicated to Pure Class…’ and ‘Abi. Rest in Peace’ written at the bottom of the wall. Abi was Abigail Clay, who was well loved in the local area. But she tragically had a fatal asthma attack while out with friends at the Thekla on 27 November 1996. The year after, Banksy and friends of Abi painted the mural. The particular breeze block that had the Banksy tag on it soon appeared on eBay. I got into a bit of a row with the brick seller as I felt it was pretty insensitive to try to flog it. Springdale Developers apologised, saying they didn’t realise the significance of it, and they have since named the new development Abi Clay Court in honour of Abi.”

Gorilla BS5 6SP “This appeared in mid-June 2007. In July 2008 a drawing of this image appeared on Banksy’s website, which… reiterated how good a drawer Banksy really is. It also reminds me of what Banksy wrote in his books, that ‘All artists are prepared to suffer for their work, but why are so few of them prepared to learn to draw?’”

BANKSY LOCATIONS (AND A TOUR) VOL 2 (SHELLSHOCK PUBLISHING, £12.50) IS OUT NOW.

Copyright Mike White 2011; pics copyright Martin Bull 2011

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