LONDON — Street artist Banksy has made waves in London this summer with a spectacular series of artworks that have delighted and confounded the city’s residents and visitors alike.
Banksy – whose true identity remains unknown despite more than two decades in the public eye – has been unveiling stencils and installations depicting animals every day for over a week at different locations in the city and announcing them on Instagram.
The works, all but one of which were stencilled in public spaces, have left his fans and art critics puzzling over their meaning. Appearing just after the worst far-right riots in more than a decade rocked towns and villages across the UK, they have once again catapulted the artist to the centre of the country’s cultural conversation.
“It has become clear over the years that Banksy sees himself as a political artist and that almost everything he does has a political resonance,” says Andrew Renton, curatorial professor at Goldsmiths University of London, one of Britain’s most prestigious art institutions. “And that’s interesting because the works that have appeared in the past week are in many ways not political.”
On August 5, a black goat appeared on an old industrial building in southwest London. The next day, two elephants appeared at the end of a row of houses in nearby Chelsea – as if talking to each other through bricked-up windows. Monkeys were painted and flung with a flourish over a bridge near a public transport stop in east London. And a wolf was painted on a satellite dish in south London – and then dramatically stolen by several masked men who moved quickly with a ladder and a getaway car but were filmed on a passerby’s mobile phone.
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A week ago, a pair of painted pelicans were spotted perched above a fish and chip shop in north-east London, looking as though they were devouring fish on the shop sign. The next day, a cat graced an abandoned billboard on a lonely stretch of road, and then a glass police station in the heart of the city’s financial district was transformed into an aquarium overnight.
The final two pieces in the series included a mural of a rhinoceros seemingly climbing onto an abandoned car and a gorilla on shutters outside London’s largest zoo lifting a curtain to allow a seal and several birds to escape from captivity.
Aside from theft, some pieces have been defaced by other graffiti artists since they appeared, moved to safer locations by local authorities, or removed altogether.
“It’s a kind of illusion magic, and that’s what draws you in,” says Renton. “It’s not pretentious, it’s not deeply philosophical, it’s not difficult. The accessibility is what gives it a tool for communication.”
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Banksy posted photos of all his works on his Instagram account, reaching a much larger global audience (more than 13 million followers) than he did in the 1990s, when he spray-painted buildings in Bristol, England.
But he has also produced paintings and prints for commercial purposes, donating much of his proceeds from sales to charities that seem to be in keeping with the social criticism often reflected in his work. His subjects have included British politics, Israel’s war in Gaza, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, among others.
There is no clear reason or explanation for this animal-related art series, but some have speculated that it may relate to the recent unrest, as a suggestion that humanity ultimately has the power to destroy itself and cities like London may eventually return to nature. Another suggestion from a BBC presenter is that Banksy cares deeply about the environment, animal welfare and wider ecological issues, so the final image of a gorilla releasing other animals should retroactively apply to all the creatures in the previous images.
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“He creates situations that are initially playful, comical and humorous,” says art dealer and curator Acoris Andipa, who runs the London-based Andipa Gallery and sells Banksy’s work worldwide. “People laugh, and then suddenly they’re, you know, sucking their teeth and thinking, ‘Ouch, that burns.’ It’s a conversation starter.”
Andipa sold his first Banksy work in the mid-2000s and has since sold hundreds of Banksy’s paintings and thousands of prints. With his knowledge of the commercial market for Banksy’s work, he says the recent London series may remind people of the artist’s existence once again, but is unlikely to significantly increase prices for the existing works.
The controversial nature of many of Banksy’s works not only criticizes public positions or government policies, but also questions the art market and its participants – which often contributes to its appeal.
“The anti-establishment theme that is so prominent in many of Banksy’s prints is something that a lot of people really enjoy – it pokes fun at the art world that they are, in a way, a part of,” says Jasper Tordoff, a Banksy specialist at a company called My Art Broker, which describes itself as the largest private second-hand dealer of the artist’s work. “That, in turn, is something that collectors really enjoy.”
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Tordoff argues that Banksy’s continued anonymity makes the artist somewhat immune to the resistance that confrontational attitudes might occasionally provoke.
“He’s hiding behind this mask. If his identity came to light, I think it would be much easier to say, ‘I don’t like that attitude,'” Tordoff says. “You would immediately connect with them and know a lot more about them.”
Almost everyone in the art world has a theory about Banksy’s true identity, a mystery that has persisted for over 20 years and has prompted the British tabloid press to offer large sums of money to anyone who can help them solve the mystery.
Andipa says he has never met the artist in person, but knows many people who have. Banksy’s continued success in maintaining his anonymity is down to several factors, including building close relationships within an inner circle, a Robin Hood-like reputation as a philanthropist, and a certain secret romance with street art installations.
Copyright: NPR
