Say what you like about Banksy – and people have, and they have again, and if there’s anything worse than a righteous street artist it’s a righteous street artist critic so please stop now – but the Bristol-born enigma has a unique ability to get eyes on an issue.
His latest urban intervention – a series of murals in war-torn Gaza and a complimentary YouTube video documenting the destruction – is testament to the power he has garnered as a social prankster.
A weeping goddess, kids riding a watchtower like a fairground ride and text – “If we wash our hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless we side with the powerful – we don’t remain neutral” – are some of the pieces that have popped up in Gaza, which human rights activists are calling an ‘open-air prison’.
One of his more obscure paintings is of a kitten with a bow. Banksy gave an explanation on his website: “A local man came up and said ‘Please – what does this mean?’ I explained I wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website – but on the internet people only look at pictures of kittens.”
The complimentary video is disguised, in true Banksy fashion, as a tourism video promoting Gaza as a go-to destination. The upbeat messages – “The locals like it so much they never leave” – juxtaposed with scenes of absolute devastation are painfully poignant in their irony and pretty difficult to watch.
So far the video has over 1.5 million views on YouTube. Increased awareness is a great thing, and if the public keep putting pressure on people in positions of power perhaps the plight of the Palestinian people will not remain so incredibly bleak.
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