London – AFP
With a painting in London Zoo representing a gorilla freeing other captive animals, graffiti artist Banksy concluded on Tuesday a series of unusual works related to animals that he published in nine days on the streets of the British capital.
Since August 5, Banksy has been showing daily works in the city, and one of them, for example, represents an elephant, another pelican, and the third fish, which has raised several speculations. This is unusual for the mysterious British street artist, who usually completes his murals within a few weeks, or even months.
As usual, Banksy posted on his Instagram account the ninth work of this kind, which represents a gorilla lifting a piece of tarpaulin, drawn on a metal curtain at the entrance of the London Zoo. Birds and sea lions appear under the cloth, as if they were escaping from the garden, which contains more than ten thousand animals, and two eyes seem to shine in the darkness under the cloth.
Dr Sharmila Darn, 50, who was visiting the zoo from the north-east of England, said her husband thought the picture represented “animal liberation”.
This job seemed to explain where the animals came from in previous jobs this week. The BBC expected this picture to mark the end of a wave of animal-related works that began with a picture of a goat on a wall in Richmond, west London.
A work released by Banksy on Monday showed a painted rhino climbing an abandoned car in a vacant lot.
These works raised several theories about the message that the artist, who is committed to issues such as the protection of refugees or the fate of Palestinians, wanted to express. Witnesses suggested a number of actions aimed at promoting the climate crisis, the ongoing war in Gaza, or the far-flung unrest in Britain.
But The Observer newspaper believed that the aim of the work was to build public confidence through the elements of surprise and entertainment. While some of Banksy’s works were sold for millions of euros at auctions, some were stolen, removed or vandalized.
London Zoo promised to protect the work that appeared within its scope, according to what one of its officials explained.
