I started at home with my own self-guided tour of Bristol’s Street art. I was already very familiar with many of the city’s most famous murals, so I wanted to explore neighbourhoods that have their own little oases of urban art. I had a day to explore but the number of works I found meant that by nightfall I had only managed to visit a third of the areas I wanted to. Nonetheless at each location I visited, there was a wide range of unique styles and techniques used by artists. Everything from tagging, stencils, 3D graffiti, use of spray paint, charcoal and tiles, to name a few. There is the inevitable tagging but dominating these streets are also far more complex artworks. The messages reflected by these varied significantly, some are aesthetically pleasing or particularly eye-catching, some politically charged, others emotionally moving, but the majority create a strong local presence. Below are some of the photographs I took during my exploration around Bristol.
At each location I took photographs and I realised I wasn’t the only one doing so. Street art in Bristol has now become one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions. Its long history of urban art has put the city on the map and brings in millions of pounds each year. For example the ‘Banksy versus Bristol Museum’ exhibition in 2009 saw over 300,000 visitors in 12 weeks and generated around £14 million for the city. Bristol also hosts Upfest, Europe’s largest urban street art festival held annually in one of the city’s most prominent street art neighbourhoods, Bedminster. The festival invites about 300 artists each year, from over 50 countries, ranging from world-renowned artists to local and emerging young talent, who produce murals (with permission) on a myriad of surfaces in the local area, from multistorey buildings, walls on homes, public transport, pubs, shops, restaurants, theatres, skate parks, side yards, gates, shutters, fences and hundreds of pop-up boards.
I have been fortunate to have attended this festival over the last decade. As part of my research I went back and reviewed the photographs I took and investigated if and how these works have changed over this period.
