highlights the duality of the role of these custodians of peace that, at the same time, can transform into a threat to peace itself, encouraging viewers to practice a healthy dose of scepticism towards those in power.
I Fought the Law 2004 Silkscreen print 70x70 cm
Flying Copper 2003 Silkscreen print 100x70 cm Banksy’s Flying Copper is one of the artist’s first iconic images, made in a public space using various techniques. An installation of the work was made using gigantic figures, created with a stencil on contoured paper and hung to the ceiling during the exhibition Turf War, Banksy’s first major show, held in 2003 in a warehouse in London’s East End.
The main scene depicted in this image is taken from the video documenting the March 30, 1981, attack on US President Ronald Reagan, outside the Hilton hotel in Washington. The would be assassin was a man named John Hinkley; struggling with mental health issues, he was convinced that actress Jodie Foster would have been positively impressed if he had succeeded in assassinating the President. Hinkley fired five shots with no fatalities. In Banksy’s interpretation of events, however, Hinkley’s hand reaches out not for a gun, as in the original video, but a brush lying immobile on the ground after having been used to write the words "I fought the law and I won" on the wall behind the crime scene. The phrase, also the title of this work, is actually the title of a song written by Sonny Curtis in 1958 of which Banksy quotes the version performed by British punk group the Clash in 1979. Through the artist's typical compositional feature, obtained by building new meanings through unprecedented relationships between references of a popular nature, the themes explored in this image refer to the works where the artist considers freedom of expression as being a powerful weapon. Among this series of works, the most explicit is arguably Choose Your Weapon an image which appeared in 2010 in South London, which depicts a man in a sweatshirt with a masked face leading a dog painted in style of the American artist Keith Haring: once again underlining the complex cultural mix that makes up the fertile terrain from which the artist’s images spring forth.
Some of the silhouettes of Flying Copper were later put up around London and Vienna; an installation of the work then appeared again in London in front of Shoreditch Bridge. Part of this installation was removed anonymously and reappeared in the 2012 documentary How to Sell a Banksy. The image depicts a policeman in riot gear with his face covered by the artist’s famous “smiley” face. We find the symbolism of the smile contrasted with the gun, that is, oppression and threat can hide behind the face of those who are supposed to protect us, highlighting the ambiguity of power. Flying Copper
114
115
Cloud DJ 1998-1999 Spray paint and acrylic on board 71x74 cm Cloud DJ is one of Banksy’s earliest works. The image depicted appears for the first time on the walls of Bristol documented in Banksy’s selfpublished book: Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall as an uncommisioned stencil on wall.
