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if like me you missed the bristol festival in september and the splendid graff works on view, then you’d be delighted to hear about the bristol festival exhibition, october 25 – november 2, 2008, at the lynwood road studios, over in bedminster. there, collected under one roof, are all the boards that were sprayed up at the festie, plus some more from various weapon of choice club nights, and even a guerilla galleries ’shop’!

boards have been sprayed up by the likes of inkie, sepr, yaka, richt, china mike, ponk and feek, mr jago, cheo, dicy, 3dom, andy council, ziml, flx, dan and a whole load more. impressive stuff.

all the artwork on view is for sale, the guerilla galleries work at the stated price and the hoardings through sealed bids and ebay. and what a choice! everyone who’s anyone on the bristol scene is represented* [as well as some who've migrated out of town seeking fame and fortune] – one was even dj-ing when we arrived – nik ill, who has two pieces up for grabs. that and the bar went some way to making the opening night an event, though the cold wind blowing through the place made it feel like we were outdoors.

piece by nik ill

one corner of the rambling space features yr wall, an interactive digital graffiti wall, where users can select colours and cap size and spray away to their hearts content without gassing everyone to death. the system looks like a lot of fun and could be a useful practise facility. there’s also a live wall elsewhere, where you can get gassed if you want.

the warehouse area is the perfect environment for displaying such large boards, but this highlights a fundamental problem with the exhibition – its purpose is to allow people to bid for any or all of the artwork and on the face of it why wouldn’t you? but if i were to win a panel, WHERE COULD I PUT IT? there’s not a wall in my home the size of a hoarding panel. it’s not like the organisers haven’t thought about it, offering a cut-up service to successful bidders, but isn’t that sacrilege? i guess nothing’s sacred in the world of graffiti. that said, there were plenty of pieces i’d have liked to take home with me. maybe moving house is an option after all…

attendees check out the graff

but the organisers are looking to raise as much cash as they can to raise money for the bristol festival art fund and great ormond street children’s charity, so its appearance on ebay is perhaps not too surprising. of course, this means that bidding is likely to go through the roof for some artists’ work, narrowed only by the fact that winners have to collect the item from bristol.

i think you can tell that i’m torn between coveting all the artwork, thinking i don’t stand a chance of winning a piece [graffle] and having nowhere to put it anyway! which is why i won’t be placing a bid by the deadline of friday 7 november. that said, i’ll be watching the outcome with interest and wish the exhibition and draw great success.

*ok ok, so there’s no banksy, or sickboy or nick walker or ghostboy…

useful links:
graffiti badges flickr pics
the bristol festival
ebay
weapon of choice
yrwall.com