The latest wave of Banksy works, which have appeared around London and are about animal subjects, will be more comprehensive: however, the latest artwork was stolen just hours after it was displayed.
The latest piece is a stencil of a wolf howling at the sky, painted on what appears to be a satellite dish on top of a building in Rye Lane, in Peckham, south-east London. It is the fourth in his new body of work, which has appeared in various locations across the capital this week.
The Bristol-based street artist, whose identity remains unknown, has posted several images from the new series on Instagram. The first in the series, unveiled on Monday, is near Kew Bridge in southwest London and shows a goat sitting on a ledge with rocks falling below it, directly above where a CCTV camera is pointing.
On Tuesday, the artist added another drawing to the collection: silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks extended towards each other from blocked windows on the side of a house in Chelsea, southwest London.
The third artwork, titled Animal London, features three monkeys swinging from a bridge in Brick Lane, and was unveiled on Wednesday near Grimsby Street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.
Banksy's social media posts appear to confirm that the pieces are authentic. He has not commented on any of the images, a decision that has sparked online speculation about their meaning.
Some have dubbed the collection the “London Zoo” series and have theorized about its meaning. A popular idea circulating on social media is that Banksy may be comparing far-right protesters to zoo animals.
Last March, Banksy created a tree mural in north London, showing a heavily pruned bare tree with green paint sprayed on the wall behind it to give the appearance of foliage. The mural was defaced with white paint days later.
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