Known for his use of subversion - both thematically and in terms of subject matter - Banksy often employs irony and juxtaposition in his art to challenge societal norms or draw attention to contradictions. Animals can be used as unexpected elements in urban environments, highlighting the stark contrast between the natural world and human-made structures.
Animals often serve as the vehicle to allow Banksy to explore power dynamics in unusual contexts, often mimicking and reflecting human activities, and allow the artist to challenge the traditional hierarchy and question the existing power structures in society. We have chosen a selection of seminal works that capture Banksy’s sublime use of animal imagery within his oeuvre.
First appearing stencilled onto the side of a house in Bristol (long thought to be the hometown of the secretive artist) ‘Barcode’ has become one of the most sought after of all Banksy artworks.
Much like in many of his early prints, the artist uses a monochrome to further emphasise the subject. In Barcode, a leopard emerges onto the foreground of the sheet appearing to break free from the confines of a cage on wheels that resembles a barcode, its bars bent by the powerful creature. Menacingly emerging towards the viewer, the organic matter of the leopard is juxtaposed with the digital, ethereal world of barcodes (like Neo escaping the Matrix) as nature fights from man’s attempt to contain it. Or are we the leopard in the work?
Captured and shackled by our digital world as we strive to break free? There is beauty and danger here, confronting the viewer directly as we fall in its line of sight of the exotic beast. Banksy at his best with a flourish and a twist wrapped up in a seemingly simple image.
Dumbo is one of Banksy’s most rare and sought-after prints that is seldom seen at auction or on the open-market. Dumbo was created as part of a small edition of 25 prints - 10 signed and 15 unsigned - that were released to a select group of collectors. Never released publicly, the works are all hand-finished with watercolours.
A short film created by Banksy “Rebel Attack Rocket” during his 2013 “Better Out Than In” residency in New York City can be seen as inspiration for the work. The film was part of a wider effort by the artist to release one new artwork every day during the month of October. Thematically identical, the film features a group of Syrian rebels firing a rocket launch towards the sky and hitting an unknown target. As the story develops, we see the rebels capture the target who it turns out is Disney’s Dumbo.
The print was released in 2014 and showcases the artist’s subversive dark humour. In Dumbo, we see a group of unknown (presumably) Jihadists encircling the limp body of Walt Disney’s Dumbo. The figures, executed in Banksy’s typical stencil style contrast the colourful and Disney-esque style of the unfortunate pachyderm. We see the collision of two cultures (The Middle East and The West) who meet through violence and the desire to eradicate the other - sinister, humorous and poignant the work recalls other pieces such as Napalm and Christ With Shopping Bags where Banksy creates deeply provocative meaning through contrast and subversion.
"If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model".
The motif for Love Rat first appeared as a street art piece mural in Liverpool on the door of an abandoned house. Famously, the artist also created another huge rat mural on the side of a pub which subsequently has been removed. Love Rat, one of the artist’s most recognisable images, sees Banksy return to the familiar motif of the rat which so often appears across his prolific body of work. Executed in the artist’s signature stencil style, the central image is that of a rat holding a paintbrush as fresh, blood red paint from the recently painted heart drips down the scene. Promoted as “ideal for a cheating spouse” on Banksy’s website, Love Rat makes us think of the duality of love with its capacity to cause pain as well as joy.
Love Rat can potentially be placed within Banksy’s wide modus operandi and approach to his craft. In his 2005 autobiographical book Wall and Piece, which features over 30 different representations of rats from the artist’s early career Banksy writes, “[Rats] exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees. If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model.”
One of Banksy’s most famous images, Laugh Now was originally commissioned by the Ocean Rooms nightclub in Brighton. First spray as a huge, six-metre long mural, the original work showed the image of the monkey repeated to create a line as the backdrop to the bar.
Standing upright, shoulders sloped with its head hanging down, perhaps beaten into conformity, “Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge” greets us with the evolutionary counterpoint to our concept of being human; the monkey. Nature is placed secondary to humanity as evidence of ourselves imprinted in the work through the stencil board and writing, whilst the monkey, and by extension nature, is pushed to the background and serves as a mere item on which we place our superiority and dominance over all species. Laugh Now is both provocative and comedic and the contradictory phrase is executed with typical Banksy aplomb. The mysterious text on the board suggests that the monkey is in the cusp of a revolution and ready to take control – a Planet of the Apes reference perhaps??
Buy Laugh Now print by Banksy.
Released in a signed edition of 150 and an unsigned edition of 600, Monkey Queen was sold originally at Banksy’s seminal Turf War exhibition at a warehouse in Kingsland Road in London’s East End. A street mural of the work appeared stencilled outside the London club Chill Out Zone which was subsequently removed by the authorities for Queen Elizabeth’s golden jubilee which marked the 50th anniversary of her coronation.
Buy Monkey Queen print by Banksy.
For more information on any of our Banksy original paintings for sale or to buy Banksy signed prints, contact Andipa Gallery via sales@andipa.com or call +44 (0)20 7581 1244