Artworks

Barcode (or Leopard Bar Code) by Banksy was first seen as a stencil onto the wall of a house on Pembrock Road in Bristol sometime between 1999 and 2000. The work disappeared in August 2010 during renovations to the property, but it came to light four years later in a nearby school, when one of the teachers revealed that her husband was a builder who had worked on the house. The teacher and her husband recognised the stencil, which was marked for destruction, as a Banksy and received permission from the owner of the house to remove it. They kept it hidden under their bed for four years, when it was finally showed to the public. Another version, this time on canvas, was exhibited at Existencilism, held at the 33 1/3 in Los Angeles in 2002. The following year the edition prints were created and released in 2003/4.

Laugh Now by Banksy: “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge” is written on the sandwich board hanging around the monkey’s neck, which seems to have appeared for the first time in 2002 when it was commissioned by a nightclub in Brighton. Since then, the artist has replicated the work many times as street art, installation, and editioned on both canvas and screen print on paper. Banksy’s monkey attests to the arrogance of humanity towards other species; the words on the monkey’s sandwich board like a prophecy or parady of 'Planets of the Apes', announcing that one day the undesirables, the humiliated and the oppressed will rise from the ruins of society.