A man hiding a saw behind his back offers a three-legged dog bone in one of the new Banksy works addressing the plight of migrants in Paris.

ART REVIEW

New Banksy works spread across Paris take on migrant issues, cruel politicians, and racism.

BY KAZAD

PARIS, FRANCE– Banksy, the mysterious British street artist has again inserted himself into the debate on the plight of migrants with as many as six works created in the last few days in Paris.  Spread on walls across the city, the new Banksy works seem to take aim at the French government’s crackdown on migrants and society’s capitalist values.

One of the new Banksy works depicts a young black girl spraying a pink wallpaper pattern over a swastika on a wall.  Beside her is her sleeping bag and a teddy bear. The sprayed pink wallpaper evidently is not just an attempt to block out racism, but also to make her patch of pavement more attractive.  The image is on a wall in northern Paris, next to an official refugee shelter that was controversially closed in March despite protests from the city’s Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo. The image echoes the Banksy’s 2009 painting Go Flock Yourself.

Napoleon Wears the Niqab

In another of the new Banksy works, the artist addresses a controversial issue that continues to shape discourse about migrants and identity. The work takes on the subject of the ban on the burqa and niqab in France.  Burqa and niqab are coverings worn by some Muslim women. For this work, Banksy borrows from Jacques-Louis David, one of the most iconic in French 19th-century art.   The work has the image of Napoleon rearing his horse as he crosses the Alps to invade Italy in 1800, his face and body wrapped in his red cloak in a manner that mimics a Muslim woman wearing a niqab.

Banksy’s appropriation of David’s painting of an iconic figure in history makes poignant his comments on race, identity, migration.  The location of the mural on a wall in an ethnically mixed district of northern Paris further illuminates Banksy’s point about migrant envy. Others, however, have seen the works as a metaphor for a lack of political leadership, the general blinded by his own hubris.

Banksy: What Happened to the Spirit of May 1968

Banksy’s trademark rat in one of his new works Paris in Paris

Near the Sorbonne, University on the Left Bank is yet another of the new Banksy works. The Left Bank has a long history as a site of revolution and the quest for equality. It was the center of a major student uprising 50 years ago. The image here bears one of Banksy’s trademark rats, his avatar for wronged ordinary people. The rat sits under the caption “May 1968” wearing a Minnie Mouse bow.  This piece appears to take a jab at the death of French revolutionary spirit.

May 1968 was a turbulent time in France. It was a period marked by demonstration and general strike, including the takeover of university and factories across France. So bad was the uprising that the fear of civil war or revolution gripped the whole country. With this new piece, Banksy seems to be asking, “Where is your spirit of outrage.”  He could also be referencing how capitalism has cowed the spirit of revolution that sparked the May 1968 uprising. Many of the ordinary people now work at The Disneyland Paris theme park just outside the French capital.

In another mural, Banksy takes a swipe at politicians and business owners. In the mural is a man in a suit. With his left hand, the man offers a dog with one leg chopped off a bone. With his right hand, he hides a saw behind his back. The dog, resting on its three good legs looks at the man and the bone confused.  Like many of Banksy’s works, viewers have the artist’s permission to interpret them. Clearly, the man sawed off the dog’s leg. However, why is he offering the dog a bone? Is it a way of luring the dog so he cut off the remaining legs with the saw he is hiding behind his back?  Is that the bone from the leg sawed off by the man? If that is the case, Banksy is identifying politicians and business owners as cruel.

In addition to the four works mentioned above, two other work featuring Banksy rats appeared in images also found around the city during the weekend. One was dynamiting a road sign, while the other rides a popped cork from a champagne bottle.

Although the new Banksy works are unsigned, there are clear indications that based on style, color, line, and the appropriation of images from photos, they are authentic Banksy. Moreover, Banksy, a long-time supporter of the refugee cause, has used his work to criticize the treatment of migrants across the globe.

Of recent, new Banksy works have been addressing migrant issues. In 2015, he painted a mural on the edge of the Calais “jungle” camp built by migrants trying to get to Britain. One of the murals The Son of a Migrant from Syria depicts Apple co-founder Steve Jobs — who was of Syrian descent — carrying a knapsack and an Apple computer. The work was used to counter the narrative that migrants are “pests” as many politicians have postulated. The Calais camp was razed soon after the mural was created.

In another work addressing the plight of migrants, Banksy appropriates Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, to address the shipwrecked hopes of migrants trying to cross the English Channel. Many migrants have died trying to get to the “promised land” and “land of hope.” The mural is on the wall of a house in the northern French port.

Since the migrant crisis began, France has been one of the major destinations for people seeking refuge from war, violence, and environment disasters. However, instead of open arms, migrants have met with an iron fist policy. In the last three years, 40 makeshift camps have been razed due to France’s tough anti-migrant policy. President Emmanuel Macron is committed to ensuring that the city does not become a magnet for refugees. With nowhere else to go, more than 2,000 migrants, including children and teenagers, have been sleeping along canals and under motorway bridges. Banksy’s works continue to give voice to give voiceless migrants who continue to sleeping next to the mural.

Banksy, Napoleon wearing niqab, worn by some Muslim women.

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