The pseudonymous British artist Banksy has inked London once again, with a new mural of children bundled up in winter clothing appearing just days before Christmas.
The artwork — splayed on the side of a building in the Bayswater district, near Kensington Palace — was confirmed Monday on Banksy’s official website and Instagram account. That image was nearly identical to a second piece that was spotted around the same time by Centre Point tower, a historic brutalist landmark near Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road, in the middle of a bustling central London shopping district.
The Bayswater work shows two young children in winter clothes, lying on what appears to be a tin roof and pointing up toward the sky, as if they are stargazing. The painting was stenciled onto the side of a building above a graffiti-marked storage unit or garage and a tuft of overgrown weeds; a large dumpster sits just a few feet away.
The artwork was boarded up only hours after Banksy had confirmed his authorship in an uncaptioned Instagram post, the British tabloid Metro reported Monday.
The second work, which has not been confirmed as Banksy’s on his official accounts, shows the children lying on the ground. The artistic surprises appeared to have given Britain the gift of conversation, with some social media users speculating that the works were a social commentary on rising youth homelessness in the country.
“This art is sad but hopeful,” one Instagram user wrote below Banksy’s post. “Prayers to all the poor kids all over the world.”
Another user wrote, “It’s highlighting poverty, and child homelessness during Christmas.”
Several pointed out that the unconfirmed mural may have been strategically placed in front of Centre Point tower as a statement on homelessness. In 1974, the tower was overtaken by a group of protesters who took issue with it being unoccupied amid a severe housing shortage in the city. The building, widely seen as an emblem of inequality, is often referred to as a “ghost tower,” though people were starting to buy units and move in around 2018.
A local charity focused on youth homelessness also operates under the name Centrepoint. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked about the murals.
Active since the 1990s, Banksy gained prominence and is known for drawing upon current events or social issues in his art, at times circumventing city ordinances or laws on vandalism for the sake of it. In September, authorities covered up a Banksy mural depicting a judge beating an unarmed protester with his gavel, which was painted on the exterior of the Royal Courts of Justice in Westminster.
In 2017, he appeared to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration — a missive expressing the British government’s support at the time for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” — with a painting of a masked man poised to throw a bouquet of flowers (instead of, say, a rock) on the side of a building in the West Bank.
He has also left his creative mark among the bombed-out buildings and ruins of several war-torn Ukrainian cities since Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022.
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