Banksy, the world-famous mysterious street artist, has recently left a new trace in the London streets by creating a series of stencils on the walls of the city buildings. The series has already been widely regarded as the Banksy animal series, as all stencil works feature some kind of animal and come with an environmentalist message. Here is a brief review of the works and their destiny.
What does the Banksy animal series include?
The first stencil in the London series emerged on August 5, featuring a black mountain goat stuck on a small pedestal and about to fall into the abyss. The next day, Londoners could see the two elephants painted on two shut windows, turning their trunks to one another. A day later, monkeys swinging across a bridge in east London were found. The following stencil with a wolf howling at the moon was painted on a satellite dish.
Another Banksy piece emerged on the bare advertising board in Cricklewood, depicting a black cat stretching in the morning sun. Banksy also treated the London public to the image of pelicans eating fish above the entry of Bonner’s fish bar.
The final mural emerged on the gate of London Zoo, featuring a huge gorilla lifting the gate to allow various kinds of animals to escape. A sea lion and several birds are depicted as liberated, while many other watchful eyes are still in the darkness, waiting for their turn to leave the zoo.
According to Banksy, the cheerful animal series is meant to amuse the viewers and give them a couple of moments of joy amid the depressing news and events.
What happened to the new works?
As often happens with unsupervised and unprotected street art that may be easily destroyed, one of the pieces from the Banksy animal series was immediately stolen by a group of masked men. The satellite dish with a howling wolf was removed just a couple of hours after the mural’s emergence, with its destiny still unknown.
The big stretching cat was also removed, though this work was done by official contractors fearing that the street art piece would repeat the destiny of the Banksy wolf.
The final piece depicted on the gate of London Zoo was swiftly removed by the administration and replaced by an accurate reproduction. The removal purpose was named “safekeeping,” and it was necessary for restoring the zoo’s operations. The zoo’s authorities are currently deciding on the future fate of the Banksy artwork.