The meaning behind Banksy’s latest series has been revealed as the artist unveiled the sixth artwork in his new animal-themed collection in London.
The elusive street artist posted a photo of a cat on an empty, distressed advertising hoarding on Instagram on Saturday without any caption.
Located in Cricklewood, north west London, the design depicts the silhouette of a large cat with an upturned nail as it appears to stretch out its body.
The artist, whose real identity has never been confirmed but is widely speculated upon, has unveiled a new animal artwork each day this week, of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf and pelicans.
Now, Banksy’s vision for his latest graffiti series has been revealed – he just wants to cheer people up. The aim of the animals is to inject some fun and lightheartedness into summer, at a time when much of the news has been dark and bleak, with a moment of unexpected entertainment.
Banksy’s support organisation, Pest Control Office, indicated that recent discussions over elaborate theories of deeper meanings have been far too involved. Instead, the art was simply created with the hope of highlighting humans’ capacity for play rather than destruction.
The meaning behind the artworks has been disclosed along with the promise of more to come. The Observer reports that a spokesperson suggested a seventh image may soon appear in another surprising location in the capital.
It comes after Friday brought an image of pelicans pinching fish from a London chip shop sign in Walthamstow, east London, and Thursday saw the announcement of a wolf howling on a satellite dish in Peckham, south London.
However, less than an hour after it was disclosed, the wolf design was removed by three men, according to a witness who told the PA news agency that he filmed them, which led to one of the men grabbing and throwing his phone on a roof.
“It’s a great shame we can’t have nice things and it’s a shame it couldn’t have lasted more than an hour,” he said.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “We were called to reports of a stolen satellite dish containing artwork at 1.52pm on Thursday August 8 in Rye Lane, Peckham. There have been no arrests. Inquiries continue.”
A spokesman for Banksy told the PA news agency that the artist is neither connected to nor endorses the theft and that they have “no knowledge as to the dish’s current whereabouts”.
The first piece of graffiti in Banksy’s new animal-themed series, which was announced on Monday, is near Kew Bridge in south-west London and shows a goat with rocks falling down below it, just above where a CCTV camera is pointed.
On Tuesday, the artist added silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched towards each other on the side of a building near Chelsea, west London.
This was followed by three monkeys looking as though they were swinging underneath a bridge over Brick Lane, near a vintage clothing shop in the popular east London market street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.
The street artist was recently criticised by then home secretary James Cleverly, who said the artwork he created for Glastonbury Festival was “trivialising” small boat crossings and “vile”.
The artist had said he was the person behind an inflatable boat filled with migrant dummies which had been crowdsurfed at the music festival in June, during performances by Bristol indie punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz.