Parade of Banksy animals sends fans on giddy hunt
LONDON — The first Banksy piece to show up was a mountain goat, spotted by passersby on a wall near the River Thames. The second work, a pair of elephants, appeared overnight on a house in southwest London. Then came some playful monkeys, a howling wolf, two hungry pelicans and a cat.
For nine straight days, Banksy, the famed and elusive street artist, unveiled a menagerie of animal artworks around the city, a prolific outburst that thrilled Londoners.
For Banksy fans, finding the works became a daily, citywide scavenger hunt.
“It’s like an adventure,” said Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, an artist who sketches live street scenes. “It’s turned into a safari around London.”
Every day since the first one appeared, Lloyd-Morgan checked social media to figure out the location of each new Banksy and pay it a visit. “This is like a happening,” he said. “So basically I put everything else on hold.”
It was an unusually whimsical outpouring from Banksy, a British artist known for his socially and politically charged street art, which has appeared in New York City, the West Bank, Ukraine and other areas around the world. More recently, he sent an inflatable boat with dummy passengers to surf across a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in England, a commentary on the plight of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
But what message was Banksy trying to send with the animals scattered across London? That has spurred speculation, even as the works have delighted the residents of the neighborhoods they popped up in.
On Tuesday morning, a stencil of a gorilla was sighted outside London Zoo, appearing to lift a shutter for birds and other animals to escape. It was the ninth and final piece of the series, according to Pest Control Office, the organization that manages contact with Banksy, who has remained anonymous. It declined to comment on the meaning behind the works.
Those who hustled to see the gorilla only hours after Banksy shared it online had plenty of thoughts. On Tuesday, families that had gathered at the entrance of the London Zoo to see real animals were joined by a crowd of street art bloggers and photographers. Runners and cyclists, still sweating, stopped to take selfies. Two patrolling police officers, after checking on the crowd, posed with the Banksy.
Giulia Riva, a street art blogger from Italy, speculated that the work was about nature taking back the urban space. “These animals are now running wild throughout the city — and they are re-wilding the city,” she said. Riva, who arrived in London recently and has met other like-minded people during her Banksy pursuits this week, said that the hunt was part of the art.
“The point is not if the stencil is sharp or well-executed, but it is creating all this,” she said, gesturing around. “There are dozens if not hundreds of people going around the city, chasing the animals.” She added: “We are part of the piece in a way. It’s a performance.”