Banksy has returned to intervene in public space with a new work of street art. The British artist, as usual, confirmed its authenticity through a post on Instagram, publishing an image of a mural that appeared in London in the days immediately before Christmas. The work depicts two children lying on their backs, looking skyward; one of them is pointing at something with his finger, as if he is drawing attention to a specific spot above them. As reported by Artnews, the first mural was spotted Monday outside the Tottenham Court Road subway station, near Centre Point, a well-known Brutalist skyscraper that dominates the area.
At a time of year traditionally associated with the imagery of expectation and hope, the scene can be read as a depiction of two children gazing at the sky in search of a sign, perhaps related to the figure of Santa Claus. An interpretation that, if isolated from context, would appear unusually tender compared to the artist’s habitually critical and ironic tone. In any case, as Artnews suggests and writes, the placement of the work suggests a more complex level of interpretation. Centre Point, a 34-story tower built in 1966 as an office building by developer Harry Hyams, sat unused for years despite a severe housing crisis, waiting for a major tenant. This choice made it a symbol of the contradictions of London’s housing market, so much so that a nearby homeless shelter was ironically named Centrepoint. Over time, the building has housed such entities as the William Morris agency, the Saudi oil company Aramco, and the video game company EA Games.
In 2015, Centre Point was converted into multimillion-dollar luxury apartments after it was acquired by real estate group Almacantar. According to reports by the BBC, the company would later suspend the sale of the properties due to numerous offers deemed too low, amid a city context marked by the failure to meet housing targets, rising homelessness, and the exclusion of many families from the housing market. In light of these elements, some observers have interpreted the mural as depicting homeless children lying in the street.
Unusually for Banksy, the work appeared in duplicate. In fact, a second identical mural was spotted about five kilometers away, in Queen’s Mews, a quiet cobblestone street in the Bayswater neighborhood, painted on a wall above a row of garages. It is this second version that appears in the image posted on Instagram, where the artist has some 13.8 million followers. It is Banksy’s first new intervention after three months of silence. The last work was in September, when a mural that appeared near the Royal Court of Justice depicted a judge hitting a protester with a gavel, interpreted as a reference to arrests that occurred during a pro-Palestinian protest. Even then, the work was quickly covered up by local authorities.
In December last year, on the other hand, the artist had shared on social media an image of a woman breastfeeding an infant, with an iconographic reference to the Madonna and Child, but with the nipple replaced by a rust-leaking tube. The latter work was never physically located, thus remaining confined to digital space.
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| New Banksy in London with children looking at the sky: is the city ignoring the housing crisis? |
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