Banksy’s London Artwork Included Wolfs, Monkeys And Elephants: Is There A Theme?

Banksy’s recent artwork, featuring an animal theme, was stolen from London shortly after it was unveiled. The artwork was painted on a satellite dish situated atop a building above Rye Lane in Peckham, southeast London. It featured a stencil of a wolf howling at the sky. The painting was stolen a few hours after it was put on display.

The unidentified street artist from Bristol has shared many images from the new series on Instagram. He unveiled the first image in the series on Monday. It depicts a goat sitting on a ledge with boulders tumbling down below it, slightly above where a CCTV camera is aimed, and is located close to Kew Bridge in southwest London.

Two elephant silhouettes with their trunks stretching toward one another from obscured windows on the exterior of a Chelsea, south-west London, home were added to the collection by the artist on Tuesday. The third animal-themed piece of art in London was unveiled on Wednesday at Grimsby Street, which is not far from Shoreditch High Street. It included three monkeys swinging across a bridge on Brick Lane.

The artist’s social media posts appeared to authenticate the piece. Banksy, however, did not provide captions, which led to various interpretations and speculation regarding the artwork’s meaning. A @rosalindfogden likened the wolf artwork to the well-known phrase ‘lone-wolf’. She wrote under Banksy’s Instagram post – “Lone wolf, aren’t all of us?’ You come in on your own and you leave on your own.” Another user jokingly wrote, “I think this is going Again to the zoo. Some people “rescued” that wolf.”

Online hypotheses have been sparked by the artist’s absence of comments. According to The Guardian, others speculate that the collection, which has been dubbed the “London zoo” series by some, is a critique of recent far-right riots, comparing them to zoo animals.

Banksy’s first public artwork after a noteworthy prank at the Glastonbury Festival in June was this series. A migrant boat that the artist had made was crowd-surfed during the event, which also featured performances by rapper Little Simz and Bristol band Idles.

Banksy had painted another mural in north London earlier in March. In order to simulate the look of leaves, green paint was used on the wall behind the severely cut and naked tree in this painting. Soon after it was hung, this painting was vandalized with white paint.