The writer never sleeps (especially in August): where are the new works of Banksy?
In August the art world usually slumbers: not in London, and not Banksy, who has gifted the city with new works. August 5, 2024 A mountain goat has appeared on the top of a… chimney on the side of a building in Kew Bridge. It appears to have just jumped, and small rocks are still falling from the top of its urban mountain.
Kew Bridge, Londra
From there, one by one, other wild animals appeared in the city. Elephants, monkeys, wolves… accompanied immediately after by a post by Banksy on Instagram confirming their authorship, without however any commentary to help understand the meaning.
To this day, Banksy remains a mystery, some even think that it is a group of artists … If he is a single and solitary figure, it seems to be from Bristol, where he made his first works in the early nineties. He must therefore be a middle-aged man by now! His fame It has grown continuously, reaching perhaps peak on October 5, 2018when at Sotheby’s in London, his painting Girl with Baloon (from 2006) was sold at auction for £1,042,000, a record at the time.
Sotheby’s, London, 5 October 2018
With the mind on the dramatic turn of events at Sotheby’s auction
There was a twist: a fraction of a second after the hammer struck, a mechanism hidden in the frame began to destroy the work, fortunately jamming halfway through the process – Banksy later revealed that the destruction was intended to be total. Sotheby’sfor his part, was unaware of the plan and it was a great shock for everyone, especially for the buyer, who nevertheless negotiated and accepted the half-destroyed work. And he did well: not only did it become the first work of art to be created at auction but he resold it on October 14, 2021 for a record amount.
Coming back to this August in London, The goat was joined by two elephants in Chelsea, looking out of two blind windows, trying to join their trunks. The day after the monkeys they began swinging over an overpass in Brick Lane, while a wolf howling at the moon-parable, performed in the Peckham district, has alas gone, not alone but with thieves.
Peckham, London
Where are Banksy’s latest works located?
From August 9th are two pelicans happily eating fish in north-east London, above a fish & chips restaurant in Walthamstow.
Walthamstow, Londra
The Panther of August 10thperformed in the north-west of the city this time, in Cricklewood, has been removed by the owners of the billboard that supported it: they promise that it will be visible in a gallery…
Right in the centre, not far from St. Paul’s Cathedral, a small school of piranhas began swimming aggressively on the windows of a police sentry box.
It was Sunday, while Monday 12th a rhinoceros coveted a Nissan Micra…
Charlton, near Greenwich, London
One wonders what all these wild and exotic animals are doing around the city, and the answer is not long in coming: a gorilla freed them from the London Zoo: it appears at the end, August 13thas he raises the shutters of the venerable London institution, and lets his fellow prisoners out.
London Zoo, Londra
What a sense of freedom… beyond the motivation of the artist who writes nothing in his posts, one cannot help but imagine a criticism of man, who is not content to tame nature, but subdues and destroys it. Banksy tries to give this nature back to us, in his own way, and pushes us to think intensely.
Works at risk of vandalism
Finsbury Park, Londra
In March, in a corner near Finsbury Park, in North London, he had brought a sick tree back to life. It was an immediately beloved work, which responded so, with simplicity and intelligence to the ever-increasing need we have for trees, for oxygen. Unfortunately, it was vandalized almost immediately, like some of the animals of this August: envy, anger, stupidity? It is difficult to say, but what is certain is that despite their irony, his works are never a game.
The writer never sleeps (especially in August): where are the new works of Banksy?
In August, the art world usually slumbers: not in London, and not Banksy, who has gifted the city with new works. On August 5, 2024, a mountain goat appeared on the top of a… joint…