Banksy and the Emancipation of the Spectator

Ca talogue 09

Jack & Jill (Police Kids)

2005 Silkscreen print 50x70 cm

Banksy often tackles themes tied to childhood. In his book Wall and Piece, he wrote, “A lot of parents will do anything for their kids, except let them be themselves.” This quote is necessary to understand the meaning of this image that depicts two children jumping happily in what seems like normal water. The aspect of carefree childhood is contrasted with the kids’ bulletproof vests bearing the word “Police”. Jack & Jill focuses on the paradox that creates tension between the presumed innocence of childhood, the worries of parents and a "militaristic" society where families tend to adopt overly protective attitudes toward their children. Banksy often uses bulletproof vests: in one of his versions of the dove of peace painted in Palestine in 2007, Armored Dove of Peace, the bird is wearing a bulletproof vest like the figures in the series Family Target.

Grannies

2006 Silkscreen print 56x76 cm

Grannies appeared for the first time during the 2006 exhibition Barely Legal in Los Angeles, as a stencil on canvas. It was never made as an outdoor work and is one of the images that best uses typical British humor. Set against a pink background, the piece shows two friendly grannies, or grandmothers, knitting in their chairs. But look closely at the words on the shirts they’re making: they’ve knitted subversive phrases that represent protest slogans which usually show up in vandalized streets and as tattoos. One of the grannies is making a sweater with the phrase “Punk’s Not Dead”, while the other says “Thug For Life”. Both women have an expression of satisfaction on their faces, as if they’re happy to participate in a subversive culture, or as Banksy called it, “entry-level anarchy”.

Bomb Middle England

2002 Silkscreen print 30x100 cm

Bomb Middle England is a title that doesn’t seem to give much away. The image depicts a British stereotype: a group of old ladies playing bowls on the green in the English countryside. However, in Banksy’s version the bowls have been replaced by cannon balls with lit fuses as a clear reference to war in a period of British military engagement in Iraq alongside US troops. The public debate around the British intervention has been lit but, according to Banksy, it does not seem to concern certain social classes. The artist seems to be criticising the British middle class for their seeming immunity to the atrocities of war, these horrors to little more than a game on a green. Other interpretations suggest that the old ladies represent the perilous nature of the superficial values and attitudes typically held by a middle class that populates central England. A further level of meaning can be read between the lines in interpreting the title as a play on words: “to bomb” is in fact also the verb used by graffiti artists to describe the act of spray painting on city walls, also known as “bombing”. The artwork was printed as a serigraph edition in 2004 and in the same period the image was also reproduced in the form of a monochrome stencil on city walls in Bristol. The work became a subject of significant controversy with Canadian illustrator Cinders McLeod, the creator of a cartoon entitled “Anarchic Granny” in which an elderly lady prepares to throw a lit fuse cannonball in a typical game of bowls, when viewed side by side the two works share a great deal stylistically speaking. Here it seems fitting to recall a phrase historically attributed to Picasso “The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal” that Banksy chose to include in the pages of his book Wall and Piece.

Weston Super Mare

2003 Silkscreen print 30x100 cm

The image, one of Banksy’s earliest and murkiest, depicts an elderly person seated on a bench with his hands crossed over his knees and walking cane. The subject seems to be enjoying the solitude, unaware of the gigantic circular saw coming at him. Below, you can see the words Weston Super Mare. The image appeared for the first time in 2000, painted as a stencil on canvas, at the exhibition at the restaurant Severnshed in Bristol. The composition suggests that while relaxing, the subject is actually exposed to a single prospect: death. The work was long considered cryptic until Banksy opened Dismaland in 2015, his enormous installation in Weston-Super-Mare, a pleasant seaside town for families in southern England. It’s likely that Weston-Super-Mare is where the artist spent part of his childhood, and the image embodies the unpleasant memory that he’s had of it all these years. Some believe that one of the possible interpretations is that it’s a reference to memento mori, an invitation to enjoy every moment as death can strike at any time.