Go west! (it's full of shit)

First, Charles Saatchi decides to up sticks and move and his pile of paintings west to Chelsea. Now Banksy, the man responsible for painting most of Shoreditch has opened a ten-day exhibition in Westbourne Grove. And what's more, London's most famous street artist is exhibiting his work inside a building, rather than on it.

West London, art-in-galleries, its all very traditional. But Banksy hasn't sold out- he's just grown up. His exhibition, Crude Oils, takes some iconic images you see in art galleries around the world, and remixes them with a bit of childish subversiveness. After all, aren't we all secretly desperate to get out our markers at the National Gallery and doodle on the pictures? Warhol's Marilyn Monroe is suddenly Kate Moss, Van Gogh's sunflowers have wilted, and in a particularly special piece, Madonna and child are listening to an iPod. (No, not that Madonna. Even Banksy isn't that tacky.)

Far from selling out and putting up his work in galleries, Banksy is taking the piss out of the experience of going to an art gallery. It's all a bit post-modern and ironic. But that's just the intellectual bit. The bit that actually makes it fun is that this tiny gallery (so small only five people are admitted at a time) is also home to 164 rats. So firstly, it stinks. And secondly, it's covered in shit.

I like rats.





And who says Britain is dumbing down? This is the scene outside a tiny art gallery on a Saturday morning:



The generation who passively consumed pop culture are gone! London is "braining up" before our eyes. More and more people are heading to art galleries than ever before. Pop music is all but dead. Obedience to the seasonal dictates of fashion labels is now the occupation of chavs, the rest of us would prefer to be a bit more individual. And who reads tabloids any more? The 21st century is an exciting place to be.... (all of these thoughts came to me when standing on the road taking the above picture in the three seconds before I narrowly avoided death by bus. Deep, huh?)

Crude Oils runs at a random shop unit in Westbourne Grove, West London (you can't miss it) until 23rd October