Banksy

Banksy’s 'Bad Meaning Good' (2002) is a succinct and wry example of the artist’s early transition from guerrilla street interventions to autonomous works on canvas. Executed in spray paint and emulsion on canvas and typically sized around 40.6 × 40.6 cm, the work was released in a very limited edition of four and is accompanied by a Pest Control certificate of authenticity. The composition centres on a stark, large coloured “X” over which Banksy sprays a stencilled image of a weapon‑like form - in the first volume, a stylised machine gun with oversized shoes - inverting aggressive iconography into something almost absurd.

From an art historical perspective, Bad Meaning Good encapsulates Banksy’s formative engagement with the visual tropes of protest, authority, and subversion that define his broader practice. Created as one of a series of conceptual “album covers” for the Bad Meaning Good music compilations (with tracks curated by artists such as Skitz), the piece operates at the intersection of street aesthetics and popular culture, underscoring Banksy’s ability to appropriate and reframe familiar symbols of power as objects of ironic critique. The oversized clown‑like shoes on the machine gun - a motif repeated across the series - undercuts the instrument’s violent associations, inviting viewers to reconsider the coded meanings of militaristic imagery and the cultural mechanisms that transform “bad” into “good.”