Over the past few days, curious art-like installations have been popping up across Bristol, leaving residents amused, puzzled, and just a little bit bewildered.
Bristol’s streets have always had a flair for the unexpected, but this week, things got especially weird. From mysterious green circles appearing overnight in Bedminster to a historic art gallery in Clifton being dramatically wrapped in pink ribbon, the city has once again blurred the line between urban planning and public art. What’s going on? We took a closer look to uncover the stories behind Bristol’s latest curiosities.
Mystery spots in Bedminster
Image via SWNS
This week, something odd bloomed overnight in Bedminster. Locals on Grenville Road woke to find their street had been decorated with giant green circles, some barely the size of dinner plates, and some getting up to 1.2 metres wide. No signs, no warning, no explanation. Just spots.
Understandably, residents were left scratching their heads, and the conspiracy theories came rolling in. So we took the mystery over to Instagram where your guesses ranged from silly to speculative, with no clear answer in sight.
“Aliens!”
“Mould.”
And my personal favourite:
“The problem blob from Numberjacks.” (Shoutout to the CBeebies generation.)
Despite the confusion and lack of explanation, residents’ reactions to the new splash of colour on their street were wholly positive. Many took it in their stride, treating the spots as just another example of Bristol’s quirky street art, with one local describing it as “very Bristol”.
After a couple of days of social media speculation, Bristol City Council stepped in to clear things up… kind of. They confirmed that the green circles are, in fact, part of a new traffic calming measure designed to subtly influence driving behaviour in residential areas.
While the council didn’t go into much detail about how exactly brightly coloured dots are meant to calm traffic, they did note that similar “creative road markings” have been trialed elsewhere. Perhaps making drivers slow down out of sheer confusion is a genius move.
Meanwhile in Clifton…
Just as Bedminster was adjusting to its new polka-dot look, Clifton was getting tangled in something stranger still.
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA), one of Bristol’s most respected art institutions, was suddenly wrapped in over 1,000 metres of bright magenta ribbon. The ribbon winds its way around the outside of the building, dips in through a window, and snakes through the interior galleries.
Unlike the green dots, this installation isn’t a mystery at all. Titled “Negotiated Space” it’s the latest work by Luke Jerram, an internationally acclaimed Bristol-based artist known for large-scale public artworks. Jerram was also behind the 2014 event that turned Park Street into a giant slip-n-slide. “Negotiated Space” is part of the RWA’s ‘Summer of Textiles’, a series of exhibitions and installations that are “set to be bursting with stories, colours, and textures.”
So if the pavement starts to look like a board game or the local gallery resembles a birthday present, don’t be alarmed. This is just Bristol being Bristol. Delightfully confusing but never boring.
Featured image via SWNS
No Comment! Be the first one.