JK Rowling to Banksy: Real and Imagined Lives at Bristol's M Shed

Exhibition Preview: Real and Imagined Lives: What is Fact? What is Fiction?, M Shed, Bristol, until January 6 2013

Grabbing a bunch of 16th and 17th century portraits of people whose identities were mistaken or shrouded in mystery, the National Portrait Gallery originally intended to spin out a sense of fiction in its Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People project.

And in a new, distinctly Bristolian twist on the idea, authors including Terry Prachett and Joanna Trollope have imagined what the lives of each sitter might really have been like, backed by detailed studies by Art History students from the city’s university, working in partnership with the NPG.

The resulting yarns are available in an accompanying paperback. In the second part of the show, Real Lives, photos of 25 prominent local people linked to Bristol – JK Rowling, Tony Benn, Stephen Merchant and Carol Vorderman among them, alongside artistic forces including Banksy and Damien Hirst – have been assembled in a line-up aimed at sparking viewer imaginations.

Banksy’s portrait, naturally, is likely to be the one blurring familiarity and anonymity. The likes of Benn – who will appear at the museum as part of the surrounding events programme – remain notably less mysterious.

• Open 10am-5pm (6pm Saturday and Sunday, closed Monday). Admission £5/£4 (free for under-16s). Follow M Shed on Twitter @mshedbristol.

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