Banksy releases London Zoo animals at end of intriguing series

Photo: Adrian Dennis Agence France-Presse A work by street artist Banksy, the ninth to be released in nine days, depicts a gorilla freeing animals, on the facade of a shutter outside London Zoo, August 13, 2024

Jessica Howard-Johnston – Agence France-Presse and Germain Moyon – Agence France-Presse in London

Published yesterday at 6:09 p.m.

• Europe

Banksy removes part of the mystery: in an apparent conclusion to nine days of an intriguing animal series, the street artist unveiled graffiti at London Zoo on Tuesday depicting a gorilla freeing other captive beasts.

Elephants, pelicans, piranhas… The famous graffiti artist with an unknown identity has kept the British capital in suspense and generated multiple conjectures about his intentions by dotting the streets of London with all sorts of animals every day since August 5, while his works are usually spaced several months apart.

Following his habit, he claimed the ninth work on his Instagram account: a gorilla lifting a tarpaulin painted on a metal curtain at the entrance to London Zoo. Birds and a sea lion emerge, which seem to escape from the animal park with more than 10,000 residents, while pairs of eyes sparkle in the darkness.

“My husband thinks he’s freeing the animals,” says Sharmela Darne, a 50-year-old doctor visiting the zoo from north-east England, who can’t help but see “a little uncertain” eyes beneath the tarpaulin.

“Maybe it’s about freedom and the uncertainty of freedom,” she suggests, in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP).

This work seems to explain where the animals in the previous ones came from. According to the BBC, it effectively concludes the animal frenzy that began with the appearance of a goat perched on the conduit of a facade in the borough of Richmond, in the west of the capital.

This was followed in particular by monkeys hanging from a railway bridge, pelicans feasting on fish above the window of a fish & chips , and a cat stretching on an advertising billboard.

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Photo: Bemjamin Cremel Agence France-Presse This work by street artist Banksy, the fifth in his series, depicts two pelicans catching fish, painted on the roof of a fish & chip shop in Walthamstow, northeast London.

These apparitions have sparked multiple theories about the message of the Bristol artist, who is committed to causes such as defending refugees and the plight of Palestinians. Witnesses interviewed by AFP in front of the works have put forward the hypothesis of references to the climate crisis, the ongoing conflict in Gaza or the recent far-right riots in the United Kingdom.

The Sunday newspaper The Observerclaimed that the goal was more prosaic: to boost public morale at a time when current events are gloomy.

Theft and tag

While Banksy paintings have been auctioned off for millions of euros, masked men were filmed on Thursday seizing a satellite dish on which Banksy had just painted a wolf howling to death, recalling the theft last December, in front of astonished witnesses, of a road sign on which he had graffitied combat drones.

The sign with the cat was dismantled on Saturday to boos by workers who explained that they had been sent because of the heavy traffic on site, raising fears of accidents.

On Monday, a rhinoceros just claimed by Banksy, which appears to be climbing an abandoned car in a vacant lot, was tagged by a hooded man.

Photo: Adrian Dennis Agence France-Presse A person laughs next to a work by street artist Banksy, the eighth to be published in eight days, depicting a rhinoceros climbing a car, on a wall in Charlton, London.

Banksy himself highlighted the ephemeral nature of his work in a spectacular way by causing the self-destruction of a work that had just sold at auction for more than a million euros in 2018.

Taking the lead, the City of London administration has protected a glass cabin used by traffic officers, transformed Sunday into an aquarium by the artist with piranhas. It remains visible to the public behind protective barriers.

London Zoo also promises to protect the work that appeared on its territory, in a manner that remains to be determined, one of its managers, Karl Penman, explained to AFP.

Especially since it could be the last: “Who knows? If this is the end, then what a beautiful end!” he believes. “And if it is not the end, it is even better.”