Choose Your Weapon first appeared on a wall in Bermondsey, London in 2010 before the street stencil piece was subsequently boarded over and framed in Perspex to preserve the work.

The work shows a youth in a hoodie whose face is covered and makes one recall the slogan of then Prime Minister David Cameron “Hug a Hoodie”. Holding a stylised dog, it in itself a reference to Keith Haring’s Barking Dogs series, the figure looks disenfranchised, sunken and is a parody of the media hysteria surrounding youth who wore hoods at the time.

Likewise, the layered print also subverts the notion of man’s best friend and, instead of a friendly companion, the dog itself has become a weapon. Taking arms against the system and shining a light on those who are marginalised, Choose Your Weapon is one of the few Banksy works where the artist draws from street art iconography.