Banksy
Bad Meaning Good, 2002
Spray paint and emulsion on canvas
40.64 x 40.64 x 4 cm
16 x 16 x 1 5/8 in.
16 x 16 x 1 5/8 in.
From a series of five canvases
Unsigned; tagged ‘BANKSY’ on the right-hand overlap
Excellent condition
Framed
Pest Control COA
Excellent condition
Framed
Pest Control COA
Further images
From a small series of five canvases, comprising four signed and numbered examples and a further unnumbered example. This work is unsigned and tagged ‘BANKSY’ on the right-hand overlap. Created...
From a small series of five canvases, comprising four signed and numbered examples and a further unnumbered example. This work is unsigned and tagged ‘BANKSY’ on the right-hand overlap.
Created in 2002, Bad Meaning Good dates from a formative period in Banksy’s career, as the visual language of his street interventions began to appear upon autonomous canvases and within projects connected to popular music. Executed in spray paint and emulsion, the composition provided the artwork for Bad Meaning Good, Volume 1, a compilation featuring music selected by the British DJ and producer Skitz.
A large orange-red cross dominates the square canvas, its roughly painted surface establishing a vivid ground for the monochromatic stencil placed across it. Banksy transforms the silhouette of a machine gun by giving it a pair of disproportionately large shoes. The combination of a weapon with clown-like footwear renders the object simultaneously recognisable and absurd, undermining its threatening associations through an economical visual intervention.
Between 2002 and 2003, Banksy produced imagery for four volumes of the Bad Meaning Good compilation series. Each design reworked a symbol associated with violence, surveillance or institutional authority through the addition of an incongruous detail. By bringing the graphic immediacy of stencil art into dialogue with album design, Banksy connected the visual culture of the street with the independent music scene through which his work reached an increasingly broad audience.
The title encapsulates the conceptual reversal at the centre of the image. An object conventionally understood as dangerous is made comic, yet its original meaning is never entirely displaced. This unresolved tension between menace and humour is characteristic of Banksy’s early practice, in which familiar symbols are altered just enough to expose the assumptions surrounding them. Both playful and confrontational, Bad Meaning Good is a concise example of the anti-authoritarian satire that established the artist’s reputation.
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Pest Control. A detailed condition report is available upon request.
Created in 2002, Bad Meaning Good dates from a formative period in Banksy’s career, as the visual language of his street interventions began to appear upon autonomous canvases and within projects connected to popular music. Executed in spray paint and emulsion, the composition provided the artwork for Bad Meaning Good, Volume 1, a compilation featuring music selected by the British DJ and producer Skitz.
A large orange-red cross dominates the square canvas, its roughly painted surface establishing a vivid ground for the monochromatic stencil placed across it. Banksy transforms the silhouette of a machine gun by giving it a pair of disproportionately large shoes. The combination of a weapon with clown-like footwear renders the object simultaneously recognisable and absurd, undermining its threatening associations through an economical visual intervention.
Between 2002 and 2003, Banksy produced imagery for four volumes of the Bad Meaning Good compilation series. Each design reworked a symbol associated with violence, surveillance or institutional authority through the addition of an incongruous detail. By bringing the graphic immediacy of stencil art into dialogue with album design, Banksy connected the visual culture of the street with the independent music scene through which his work reached an increasingly broad audience.
The title encapsulates the conceptual reversal at the centre of the image. An object conventionally understood as dangerous is made comic, yet its original meaning is never entirely displaced. This unresolved tension between menace and humour is characteristic of Banksy’s early practice, in which familiar symbols are altered just enough to expose the assumptions surrounding them. Both playful and confrontational, Bad Meaning Good is a concise example of the anti-authoritarian satire that established the artist’s reputation.
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Pest Control. A detailed condition report is available upon request.