Love has been a topic for artistic celebration and exploration for centuries. Indeed, it is hard to think of any artistic form without the theme of love appearing. From the sonnets of Shakespeare to the melodies and the world’s greatest composers, love and the human condition are very much intertwined. Across any genre of art, street art being no exception, love and its symbols are often explored. In today’s article, we look at love in all its guises as told by Banksy.
Love Rat
Rats, as well as monkeys, are one of the symbols and motifs most associated with Banksy. Appearing across his street and studio works, the artist has previously said of them that, “If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model”. Indeed, perhaps the artist here is expressing, or projecting, his own views onto the rodent. Love Rat, from the signed edition of 150 and unsigned edition of 600, is one of the most popular of the rat motifs produced by the artist. A reminder that love can be painful too, the name referencing a common nickname for a cheat, and the heart that the small rodent paints is dripping - reminiscent of blood. Listed many years ago as “ideal for a cheating spouse” the work serves to remind us of love's potential to induce pain and suffering, as well as joy and pleasure.
Girl with TV
First appearing at the seminal pop-up Santa’s Ghetto - the alluring Girl with TV channels a great deal of messages within the work that are typical of Banksy. In fact, for those collectors who look for iconic images, Banksy’s Girl with TV may be one of the most complete of works. Love hearts, as seen in both Love Rat and, of course, Girl with Balloon, feature in the work as a young girl hugs an old fashioned television set. Innocence, represented by the girl, appears to be in love with this mass-media tool of communication, one that can both twist and shape reality. Here, the work reveals the deeper side to Banksy - the one where he questions society and many of the objects that we are used to. With the rise of tv in the 20th century, not to mentioned specifically it’s manipulation as a method of propaganda and control in the 21st country, Banksy acerbically questions the notion of what it is to love something and how love can often be blinded or mislead.
Love is in the Air
In the artist’s own words, the wall “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison”. Returning to the disputed region in 2005, the artist produced a further nine works in support of the freeing of Palestine against oppression and imperialism. Fast forwarding 10 years, 2015 witnessed the artist produce a further four works amongst the bombed out ruins of the Gaza strip and opened the Walled of Hotel in Bethlehem that proudly boasts ‘worst view in the world’. As with many of the artist’s works the image has also been repurposed and given a new context in the rare CCCP Flower Thrower. Believed to be from an edition of approximately only 10, this rare work seldom appears on the open market or at auction, the iconic flower thrower - in this instance - is clad in black against the red Soviet lettering: CCCP.
So, what is it about LITTA that makes it so timeless? A universal image of struggle against oppression, of hope and of identity is truly an image for our time. In a world where conflict and struggle seem to be unavoidable LITTA brings a sense of hope, of possibility and of, in the archetypal Banksy twist, love. Here we see the idea of love of a cause bigger than ourselves present a universal type of love that searches for something outside of the human condition.
Armoured Car
The 2002 spray paint on canvas work “”Armoured Car” is a fine example of Banksy’ supreme ability to weave complex narratives into seemingly simple imagery. In the work we see an armoured vehicle, typically associated with the police or armed forces. The photorealistic vehicle is juxtaposed with a cartoonish blue bow that is nearly tied to the front whilst a pair of bunny ears rise from the top. Much like Banksy’s other interpretations of the theme of control and force (Happy Choppers and Flying Copper, for example) Banksy frames the tools of the state as cartoonish and through his subversion of the image renders the once terrifying vehicle a joke. At it like rabbits? Perhaps, removing the notion of a subversive armoured car, the work is simply just a fun play on a more carnal - no pun intended - kind of love.
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