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Banksy’s new Bristol mural already defaced
A new Banksy mural in Bristol has been defaced less than 24 hours after being painted.
The piece prompted a global hunt when it was posted on the artist’s website on Monday but by the time many fans had tracked it down to a dead-end alleyway on Spike Island they found it splattered with black paint.
The image, which is a pastiche of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, was painted on a wall in Hanover Place near the Orchard pub.
The building’s burglar alarm features as the earring.
As soon as a photograph of the piece – dubbed Girl with the Pierced Eardrum – was posted on banksy.co.uk, the search was on for a location and fans took to Twitter for clues.
Studio Upstairs tweeted ‘The new #Banksy in #bristol? It’s right outside our Studio!’
On Monday evening, a number of street art fans came to take photographs of the mural, their quest soundtracked by a band rehearsing on the other side of the wall from the artwork.
Girl with the Pierced Eardrum is an unusual composition for Banksy. With its dripping paint (thought to be in place even before it was defaced) the piece is more similar in style to his Bristol contemporary Nick Walker than Banksy’s usual more precise stenciling.
Banksy’s last artwork in Bristol was Mobile Lovers which appeared in a doorway on Clement Street in St Jude’s in April, before being removed by Dennis Stinchcombe from nearby Broad Plain Boys Club.
The artist intervened when Bristol City Council argued it was on its land, writing a letter to Stinchcombe telling him that he was free to do what he wanted with the work. The club later sold the piece to a private collector for £403,000.
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