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Even a Banksy a day can’t keep pace with the theories about the meaning of his latest series of art sprinkled across London.
From the moment a goat popped up, perched precariously on a pillar in Richmond last Monday, fans have questioned what message the elusive graffiti artist is sending.
There must be a scathing critique of society in there somewhere, right? It is Banksy after all.
Many suspect his ninth and seemingly final piece in the series, showing a gorilla ripping open a shutter to release animals at London Zoo, holds the clearest clue.
But was Banksy making a political point? Or was it simply a summary of his scattergun approach to spreading joy?
‘It has provided a lot of excitement in London over the last few days’, Dr Isobel Harbison, a senior lecturer in critical studies at Goldsmiths University, told Metro.
‘It’s like a real-life Pokémon game.’
Famous for politically charged art, Bristol-based Banksy revels in mystery, refusing to confirm his true identity even as names swirl around the rumour mill.
While the mystery often centres on the suspense before he confirms the authenticity of a piece, this whole series has subjected to each of our best guesses.
A pattern appeared to emerge with two elephants reaching for each other’s trunks from the bricked-up windows of a terraced Chelsea house.
Then followed three monkeys swinging across a railway bridge over Brick Lane.
Surely the numbers must mean something?
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That became the prevailing theory until the next morning when a lone wolf was painted howling at the sky on a satellite dish on Rye Lane in Peckham.
‘Then it kind of just lost momentum’, said Banksy expert Paul Gough, a professor and vice chancellor at Arts University Bournemouth.
‘The story shifts to three guys pinching [it], and I thought, “Unless you pick up the pace here, you’re just going to dissipate all that energy, all that excitement, and you’re going to lose the marketing edge, and you’re either gonna have to deliver something big or up your ante”.’
Pelicans pinching fish from the signage of a fish bar in Walthamstow seemed a bit more pointed. Perhaps for the first time, the link between the art and its location was clear.
A subsequent black cat on a derelict billboard on Edgware Road seemed a tad more random.
The next was shrouded in doubt until officially confirmed by Banksy.
A painting of piranhas swimming in the windows of a City of London Police box was such a contrast with the simple black silhouettes of the first five days, we could not be certain it was even him.
This was more of a ‘classic Banksy’, according to Gough, who said: ‘It starts to make a point.’
Was that a sign of Banksy changing course?
His own team suggested to Metro that the aim was spreading cheer through unexpected amusement amid bleak headlines.
That may have been reinforced by the emergence of an eighth artwork, similarly detailed but far more playful.
A rhino painted on a wall looked like it was mounting a parked car adorned with a traffic cone on it hood appeared more playful, even crude, than poignant.
Then arrived the grand finale Gough was expecting, although couldn’t be sure it was such until no more appeared the following morning, or the one after.
It was of course the gorilla, daubed black on a white shutter at London Zoo, freeing a variety of animals from the dark confines behind.
Like Professor Gough, Dr Harbison suspects Banksy’s plan evolved over time, sprinkled with improvisation and varying quality, much like his month-long exhibition in New York more than a decade ago.
‘The piece at London Zoo is perhaps the most conclusive’, Dr Harbison said, ‘where this proposition of releasing animals from captivity into the urban wild is most clearly articulated.
‘Like many of the Banksy works, there seems to be a reckoning with our relationship to our built environment and how we’re negatively impacting the natural world and its various species.
‘In terms of their compositions, some of the pieces seem very site-responsive, shown carefully when photographed for his/ her/ their Instagram account.’
There had been speculation that Banksy may be trying to make a point about the riots wreaking havoc nationwide right as the project started.
It’s not like there’s been a shortage of negative news – the Southport stabbings, the war in Ukraine, the tens of thousands of people killed in Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Was a moment of respite the point itself, rather than a commentary on any one issue in particular?
But if that is the case, and theories about a political commentary are ‘way too involved’, as Banksy’s Pest Control Office claim, then why the change in style?
Gough said: ‘Initially I think the series of silhouettes is a feel-good factor, which is okay, though suddenly Banksy become not street artist but national treasure.
‘He might have just shifted gear as I think he might have though the quality isn’t quite right, the relevance isn’t quite right.’
Is the UK’s favourite street artist going through a crisis identity, trying to stay relevant amid high expectations in a rapidly changing world?
‘Put it this way’, Gough said, ‘Banksy is now around 50, an artist that age has got to dig deep inside themselves if they want to decide what am I here for, what am I doing, who am I speaking to, have I got anything to say?
‘I suspect in any creative individual there will be that sort of retrospection and thinking.’
James Ryan, the CEO of Grove Gallery in Fitzrovia, sees this as variation as a normal part of the creative process than a sign of crisis.
He said: ‘Knowing artists and being fairly creative myself, I think sometimes the initial concept can begin one way and then take a change, take a turn, things align quite nicely.
‘But the best part with art, is no one’s right, no one’s wrong. It’s subjective.’
Maybe that’s the point. Banksy doesn’t make a habit of sharing insight into the thinking behind his pieces. Even his confirmation posts on Instagram contain no captions.
He also doesn’t engage in the commentary around his work, or respond to thefts and vandalisation.
Perhaps there is no point behind these paintings beyond something pretty sprayed on a wall.
Maybe Banksy is just having fun without a grand overarching narrative behind it.
His silence may be part of the mystery, while the viewer is free to see whatever meaning they find in it.
Maybe that is the point of art.
As Dr Harbison said: ‘While people can and will wrestle with the idea of whether this is art, or even whether really it is street art, I hope it inspires people to engage with their surroundings with a renewed sense of curiosity and wonder. Also their own capacity for creativity and play.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
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