Banksy is back with his first confirmed installation of 2024.
The anonymous British street artist confirmed on his Instagram account on Monday that he was behind a mural that was first spotted in Finsbury Park in London, at the weekend.
In the artwork, a stencilled figure of a woman appears to have sprayed green paint over a white wall behind a pollarded tree, thus giving an optical illusion effect of foliage from afar.
Banksy, who has never been officially identified, shared before and after images of the stunt on Instagram.
See the post here:
The artist didn’t caption the post, prompting multiple theories as to the meaning of the mural.
Some people thought it was a message of hope amid the climate crisis, of which Banksy, who originally hails from Bristol in southwest England, has used his artwork to highlight on multiple previous occasions.
Others suggested it was a pessimistic take on the environment or a commentary on greenwashing, the tactic the United Nations defines on its website as “misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is.”
Documentarian James Peak, the creator of the BBC’s “The Banksy Story” radio series, said the message is “clear” that “nature’s struggling and it is up to us to help it grow back.”
“So, when you step back, it looks like the tree has burst into life, but in a noticeably fake and synthetic way,” he told the broadcaster. “And it’s pretty subtle for a massive tree, I’d say.”