Banksy and his mysterious saga of “animal art” amaze and confuse London

A man takes photos of Banksy’s artwork featuring monkeys on the side of a railway bridge in Shoreditch, east London (Photo: EFE/EPA/Andy Lluvia)
EFE

First came the mountain goatstanding on a precarious ledge. Then came two elephants playful – followed by three swinging monkeys. On Thursday, a wolf howling on a satellite dish (a work stolen? an hour after it was installed), and on Friday, two pelicans feeding on fish on top of a fish and chip shop. The famous anonymous street artist Banksy is delighting and intriguing the city of London this summer, with five animal-themed works of art appearing in succession this week.

The Bristol artist, who keeps his identity shrouded in secrecy, communicates with the public through his distinctive graffiti murals and stencils. His work often carries political messages or sometimes seems designed just for a bit of fun. No one knows because he doesn’t say anything else.

This week, he appears to be exploring an animal-themed series, and all of the works have been shared on his official Instagram page without any caption or context, prompting speculation from observers and art experts alike about their meaning and what might come next.

Daniel Lloyd-Morgan draws Banksy’s Friday 9 August artwork of two pelicans eating fish above Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow (Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville).REUTERS

“It is very unusual in the art of Banksy present a series of works in this way,” says the professor Paul GoughVice Chancellor of the Arts University Bournemouthin emailed comments Thursday. “I think this is leading up to something pretty substantial,” he added, predicting a “big reveal” by the weekend.

The animal theme began on Monday when a painted mountain goat appeared apparently teetering on a small, precarious ledge, with rocks falling below in full view of a real security camera. The mountain goat was painted near Kew Bridge in Richmond, southwest of London, and was shared on Monday with Banksy’s nearly 13 million Instagram followers.

“The scapegoat?” wrote one online follower, trying to interpret the image. Others speculated that it could be about a surveillance society, the war in the Middle East or the protection of animal rights.

Banksy’s “goat” on a street corner in Kew, Richmond upon Thames, kicked off the series on Monday 5 August (Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville)REUTERS

Just 24 hours later, fans were treated to a pair of elephants on Banksy’s Instagram account. The mammals appear to hang outside two boarded-up windows in Chelsea, pointing their trunks at each other playfully. One elephant appears to have tusks. “Walking and ignoring ‘the elephant in the room’…” was one fan’s interpretation online.

On Wednesday, the artist shared an image of three monkeys appearing to be swinging on a railway bridge in the trendy Shoreditch area of ​​east London. The trio of monkeys are swinging by their arms and tails at a height in the busy shopping area, with some online speculating that they are alluding to the proverb “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

Then, on Thursday, came an image of a wolf, seemingly howling at the moon, depicted on a satellite dish above a shop in Peckham, south London. “Banksy’s London Zoo!” wrote one fan about the work. On Friday, two pelicans eat fish right above a restaurant specialising in London’s signature dish: fish and chips. The Labour MP Stella Creasy from the Walthamstow constituency, celebrated the new graffiti that the neighbourhood had woken up with and thanked the artist for bringing “a little magic” to its streets.

The fourth work in Banksy’s “animal” saga in London was stolen hours after it was posted (Photo: Raúl Bobé/EFE).

Goughthe art expert who has denied online rumours that he is, in fact, Banksy, said the enigmatic street artist regularly uses animals in his art, including chimpanzees, rats, dogs and seals, among others. He does so generally “to convey urgent messages about environmental issues, threats to habitat and the impact of climate change,” he says. “But they are also powerful metaphors for the state of global politics and the problematic world we have created.”

Of the current series, Gough notes that Banksy “is creating a menagerie of animals, a bestiary of beastswhich will continue to capture attention and raise the stakes – is Banksy marketing at its best and most impactful, building enormous anticipation.”

Banksy’s Elephants, the Tuesday 6th August artwork in the London borough of Fulham (Photo: REUTERS/Mina Kim)REUTERS

The artist and lecturer Benedict Carpenter of Barthold has its own interpretation. “Banksy’s new pieces suggest that London is a zoo“where it is not clear whether we are the visitors or the animals,” she wrote in an email. “These new works have a more playful feel compared to her previous works, and do not carry the same urgent tone… It will be interesting to see where she goes.”

Despite being a well-known name, Banksy He has managed to maintain his anonymity since rising to fame in the 1990s. The street artist’s works sell for millions and appear around the world, causing a stir in the art world and on social media, including in the United States, Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank, and frequently in the United Kingdom. A version of one of his most popular images, a girl reaching for a heart-shaped balloon, sold at auction for $1.4 million in 2018. At resale, after the artist partially destroyed it, the work sold for more than $25 million in 2021.

For Gough, the latest animal-themed murals had an uplifting message: “Given the current state of penury in the world, it is so gratifying that we still want to talk about the power of the visual and the role that artists can play in reminding us of our human values.”

Fuente: The Washington Post