Banksy has unveiled his second artwork in London in 24 hours, depicting two elephants poking their heads out of blocked out windows – a day after a painting of a goat appeared in Richmond.
The Bristol-based street artist verified the piece by sharing a photo of the wall art to Instagram on Tuesday (6 August), with the artwork reported to be on the corner of Edith Terrace in Chelsea.
On Monday (5 August) Banksy revealed an artwork portraying a goat perched on top of a ledge with rocks falling down below it and a CCTV camera pointed towards it near Kew Bridge in Richmond.
Banksy has not captioned either of his social media posts about the animal artworks, which has led to fan speculation over the pieces’ potential symbolism.
One user commented on the post: “The goat represents the human race on the precipice, ‘of the edge of extinction’, the jump is not important better to take a few steps backwards.”
Another said: “The CCTV camera surley represents us watching the world crumble around us.”
In March, the artist created a tree mural in north London, which featured a cut back tree with green paint sprayed behind it to give the impression of foliage.
A stencil of a person holding a pressure hose was also sketched on to the building. The vivid paint colour matched that used by Islington Council for street signs in the area.
Banksy’s identity has long been one of the great unsolved mysteries of the 21st century, however two men were seen at the site of Banksy’s new goat piece in footage obtained by The Independent.
The pair, sporting high-vis and hard hats, are stood in a cherry picker at the location of the new mural. The images were captured at around 5am, showing a bearded man getting out of a van and activating a hydraulic lifting platform.
A second man wearing a large white face mask rises up on the platform.
The two latest Banksy artworks follow the artist’s migrant boat installation which was crowdsurfed at Glastonbury in June during performances by Bristol indie punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz.
The former home secretary James Cleverly claimed the stunt was “trivialising” small boat crossings and described it as “vile”, but the artist responded by saying his reaction was a “a bit over the top”.
Additional reporting by PA