No Tesco Party

 Bristol's campaign against the opening of a Tesco in Stokes Croft has resulted in a legal bill of £2000. To help pay it off while having fun at the same time, there's a fundraising party down at PRSC, on Friday 13th April. So, if you're in the area, drop by!

I'll be flogging the last of my Tesco Kiss cards

 ...and my Tesco Value petrol bomb cards, which may be (are) less famous than Banksy's, but were at least first! -and considerably cheaper.....

the No Tesco Tea Party

Down in Stokes Croft last night, there was a bit of a party to celebrate the holding of a judicial review into the planning process for the Tesco Express that has controversially opened there.

It was a very happy event, as you can perhaps see. And hopefully will help further distance the anti-Tesco movement from the associations with the recent riots, that were foisted upon it by the press at the time, and which still happen- I see that the BBC website still characterises the riots as 'violent anti-Tesco clashes..."

I've added a useful flowchart down below, which lists and demonstrates the interaction between the dramatis personae of the unfolding events in Stokes Croft.... click on the picture, then on the magnifying glass symbol, to see it full sized.





Picture of sleeping piglets on flowchart used under terms of Creative Commons from an original by Dragfire

priorities

I saw a bloke acting suspiciously with a bike outside the Commercial Rooms in Corn Street, Bristol; he was wrestling with the rear carrier, which was broken. There was a U-bolt lock hanging on the adjacent bike racks, and I wondered if he'd just broken the bike free of it. So I kept an eye on him. I followed him to the corner of Broad Street, where he struggled with a locked bike, removing the top tube pad. Then he wobbled off.

I took some pictures of him, and sent details of the incident to Avon and Somerset police.

This was on Saturday 30th April. Today, eleven days later, they still haven't been in touch.

Meantime, the bill for the policing of Stokes Croft, where they responded to a call from the security guards at Tesco by sending in 160 riot police from all over the region, is set to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Tesco guards had claimed that there were petrol bombs in Telepathic Heights, the squat opposite the store. It might have been cheaper, and possibly more effective, had a PCSO dropped into the squat, to have a quiet chat with the residents and see what the true story was.

And then the city would have been a bit more peaceful, and maybe the police would have had some time to investigate bike thefts.

Oh well, I guess they know what they're doing.

Queue for Banksy Petrol Bomb Art Poster in Stokes Croft 7th May 2011

Saturday saw Hamilton House in Stokes Croft hosting the Anarchist Book Fair. It also saw the selling of Banksy's commemorative poster...proceeds of which will be going to benefit locals affected by the Stokes Croft riots. Which is a Good Thing.

So of course there was a humungous queue for the posters. And AstroTurfer has made a nice film of it, with Mal's interview as a soundtrack. With, as an added bonus, a personal appearance from Mal, though you'll have to look carefully... by the way, it has been confirmed by the police that the security guards (presumably the Shergroup ones) at Tesco had made the claim about petrol bombs.


My rather less famous 'petrol bomb' picture....

...I'm getting a few cards of it printed, as a couple of people have expressed an interest. If you'd like one, do let me know!

something in the air

To celebrate the Royal Wedding, we in Bristol have had a ceremonial procession of police riot vans, much waving from the balcony (down at Telepathic Heights), and a fly-past by the helicopter. Well, more of a sustained hover.

So I did get to write a poem on the occasion of the royal marriage. Sort of.

Constabulary helicopter hovering there,
Keeping tabs on protestor and squatter;
Oh, body-armoured bobbies, we don't care
How big or throbbing is your bloody chopper.

(picture was the nearest thing to on-topic in my collection, hey ho)

how many petrol bombs?

I missed all the fun down at Stokes Croft, but Mal lives down there, and she spent some time last week holding a banner protesting against the new Tesco, outside the shop. And she got to talk with the security guards and to visit the squat opposite the store that was raided on the evening of the riot.

Her perspective is interesting, because it seems that the story of the 'petrol bombs' originated with the security guards, and the squat itself seemed rather less than a bomb factory, from her description. Which contrasts with the early media coverage of the riot, which claimed that petrol bombs had been thrown at the Tesco shop; and the Daily Mail's report, which reckons that "A hoard of petrol bombs were earlier recovered from a notorious squat opposite known locally as 'Telepathic Heights'

Here's the interview that Mal gave on BBC 5 Live



and here is a transcript of what Mal says

I’ve been protesting outside the new Tesco shop since Friday… I was getting increasingly puzzled at the amount of security that were there because we were just peacefully protesting; we weren’t a threat or a danger to Tesco at all.

And because I was there for different long periods, I was chatting to the security people and I discovered that two of the firms were employed by Tesco; one was from Cornwall and one was from London; and another third company were Geordie boys and they were very tough. They said that they weren’t at liberty to disclose – it was a London firm that employed them (edit: they were from Shergroup - see Tweet below - Dru)- but as you got chatting they said that they were specialists in evicting squats along the Thames.

And I thought as the days went past that their professionalism was not what I’d expect, because they kept referring to the people in the area as ‘street scum’ and said that if they lived where they came from they’d be smashed to bits -I’m actually quoting them- and I was a bit worried by this and I said “Smashed to bits by who then?” and one of the chaps said “By normal people” and I said “Who are normal people?” and he said, “Why, me”

“I left… I was the only one there, last night, with my placard, and as I was leaving I was looking at this enormous police presence that was amassing; it was a balmy summer evening, people were sitting outside cafes and bars drinking, and the security -a completely inappropriate amount of security –were focussing on the squat opposite.

. And the chap that had been describing the local people in such a derogatory way said “They’ve got petrol bombs in there” and I said, “I don’t think so!” –‘cause I’d been there over the four days and there were about four people in the building itself, and I hadn’t seen any evidence of any of that” and they reported it to the police who immediately responded with a huge over-the-top reaction, I believe. I don’t think it was about the Tesco protest at all; it’s a volatile area, richly diverse, and I think it was instigated for other reasons”.

postscript: 24 April 1400hrs. In response to tweets questioning the role of the security guards, I've just talked with Mal and asked her to clarify. She says that the security guard said to her "They've got petrol bombs over there!" at roughly 8:30pm; and the police arrived at about 9:00pm. The security guards said nothing about reporting anything to the police. But they were talking about petrol bombs before the police arrived.
Cllr Jon Rogers has tweeted me to say "From my briefings, it was an individual threat and police observation that led to #stokescroft raid, not Tesco security guard." Given the quality of police statements and press reporting over the events of Thursday night, a sceptical response to such a briefing may be warranted.

Update 25th April 1030hrs further tweets from Cllr Jon Rogers:

"Alleged sighting reported at 16:15. Understand it was police that had spotted, but may have also been Tesco staff. "

"beat police on scene at 16:15, petrol bomb suspected, police plans made, 20:30 raid on squat."

"Police confirm police operation started at 21:15 not 20:30 as I had been briefed. "

Questions:

What was the nature of the alleged sighting of a petrol bomb? A bottle seen across a street?

If a suspected petrol bomb was seen by the beat police, why did they withdraw rather than take action?

How was it that the Tesco security guards were talking about petrol bombs before the police operation began?

Given the size of the evening's police operation, including fully-equipped riot police from Wales, it seems reasonable to suppose that it had been some time in the planning. And serendipitous that the petrol bomb should have been sighted just before that operation swung into action, using that sighting as justification.

postscript: 10th May it was reported by Chris Chalkley, of PRSC, that he was told by the police that the petrol bomb claim was made by the Tesco security guards.

hegemony, hegemony, they've all got it hegemony

I think there's some art over here

The Arnolfini gallery (or 'Anal phoney' for short) has been doing its stuff in Bristol since 1975. It had my favouritest ever exhibition back in the 80s, with the Ruralists; lots of Peter Blake and David Inshaw. My kind of art. I usually call in when I'm passing; and I once sort-of-participated in an event called New Barbarians. It closed for a couple of years not long ago, and transformed into a much posher place than it used to be. Gone was the cheery cafe with the informal refectory seating, to be replaced by little tables, uniformed staff, and gloomy and oppressive 'designer' decor by Bruce Oldfield. Oh, and lots more gallery space.


At the moment, that gallery space is host to something called 'Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie'. I wandered around it the other day; it was easy to see, because I was the only visitor on that particular afternoon, and it was just me and the invigilators. So I didn't take pictures of the installations, as they get sniffy about that sort of thing. But I took a picture of the mission statement, because I thought it was the most interesting piece there.

If you don't like squinting at my photo, here it is

To what extent does class play a role in the production and dissemination of contemporary art? Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie investigates the latent issue of class underlying the field of contemporary visual art. The project is an open question, an invitation to a discussion long overdue, and does not offer foregone conclusions or rigid hypotheses other than the relevance of the conversation itself.

Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie will present a collaborative project with a number of practitioners that scrutinise their own positions, bias and gaze within the hierarchy of cultural production. It will seek to identify the impact class has in the field - from artists, through to curators, institutions, audiences and decision makers in mainstream art. The exhibition will contain work in various media, including photography, texts, performance, video and sculpture.

See how the people whose stuff is hanging on the wall here describe themselves as practitioners, and I am apparently an audience. So visual art is performative, apparently. I find this notion a little alien, though, thinking about it, I suppose that it's what Richard Long does. Though I 'get' Richard Long, while I found the stuff in the Arnie incomprehensible. As a general rule, I realised long ago that you're on a hiding to nothing if you find yourself in company with someone who uses words like 'hegemony'. I recall first encountering it in my early student days, when I shared a flat with Jon Charnley, leading light of the new wave band that changed its name for every gig before settling on Beam Me Up Scottie and having a single (Coffee Table Cheese Plant Anglepoise Lamp, a sort-of-love-song for Julia Platt, our other flatmate), that John Peel played for a while. In Jon's room, late at night, people (well, some people) would say things like 'hegemony' and 'Gramsci'. It was heady stuff for a post-teenager in the 80s.

The description of themselves as lapdogs of the bourgeoisie seems to indicate a dissatisfaction with the status accorded them. And describing the targeted consumer of their product as 'bourgeois' seems a little ungrateful, even if it is true. People, perhaps especially bourgeois people, do like something a bit 'edgy' to hang over their mantelpiece, as long as there is a consensus about its edginess and artiness... There is, though, a species of hegemony going on (just had to look that word up again to remind me of what it actually means. This is a sure way of knowing whether or not I should really be using a word...). And that is the hegemony of the Real Artist.

I had a neighbour (she's moved now) who is a Real Artist. I have illustrated books, though I describe myself, if pushed, as an illustrator, or as someone who draws pictures. Slobodana would purse her lips in a dismissively Balkan way when she looked at my pictures. She was too polite to say outright that they were not art. But I knew that's what she meant. I can live with that.

Bristol is very excited at the moment because it woke up on Friday to find that the City Museum, which had been closed for two days, had been transformed into a Banksy exhibition.
A couple of art critics on BBC Radio 4 talk about it here . My favourite bit is Rachel Johnson, art critic for the Times, saying "there's absolutely nothing wrong with this show". It's that Slobodana sneer again...

I haven't visited the exhibition yet, not least because it's too bloody crowded. Look, here was the queue yesterday.


The city council is quite pleased at this evidence of their hipness.

Just down the hill in Stokes Croft there is a boarded-up shop. Until three weeks ago it had a rather good bit of painting by local graf artists Cheo and 3dom. But I can't show you a picture of it now because, although the painting was done with the permission of the owners, the council painted over it. Just over the road is one of Banksy's earlier pieces, Mild Mild West, which was recently restored after someone splashed red paint over it. Authority? Establishment? Iconoclast? Artist? Who?