Banksy Unveils Two New Animal Murals in Two Days

The anonymous street artist Banksy has claimed credit for two murals that recently popped up on the sides of buildings in London.

The first artwork, located on a wall in the town of Richmond, features a goat that appears to be perched on a narrow ledge. Besides it, painted rocks tumble to the ground. The artist also repositioned a nearby CCTV camera so that it pointed up at the goat, but the device has since been restored to its usual street-level position.

Is there a larger message behind the work? Nobody is quite sure. According to the Telegraph, some think it was meant to be an environmental statement. Others wonder whether Banksy is referring to the acronym “greatest of all time.”

Meanwhile, some Londoners who live nearby are excited to have a Banksy so close to home.

“I think it’s incredible—we hope it stays here,” local resident Malcolm Taylor tells BBC News’ James W. Kelly and Harry Low.

The second Banksy piece appeared in Chelsea, an area in west London not far from Richmond. It depicts two elephants sticking their heads out of two windows of a building, reaching towards each other with their trunks.

“Some have noted that one elephant is tusked while the other is not, perhaps representing a generational divide,” writes Time Out’s Amy Houghton. “Others reckon it has an ecological message.”

This isn’t Banksy’s first work featuring elephants. At a Los Angeles exhibition in 2006, the artist brought in a real elephant and painted it to match the red and gold pattern of the room’s wallpaper. The real-life “elephant in the room” symbolized global issues that often go ignored.

On his Instagram, Banksy revealed the goat mural on August 5, followed by the elephant mural on August 6. He did not provide an explanation for either of the pieces. Still, that didn’t stop art lovers from speculating.

“The goat’s precarious position on the edge mirrors the fragile state of U.K. society, teetering on the brink of chaos due to the recent disturbances,” wrote one Instagram user on Monday.

On Tuesday, another user offered an interpretation of the elephant artwork: “For me, this represents the individualized family, distanced and removed connection as the social rule, opposing the very nature of elephants as highly familial and connected creatures.”

Banksy also did not say whether the two works are connected in any way. While it’s rare for the artist to unveil two new pieces in such close succession, this is not the first time he’s done so. In October 2013, he began a project called Better Out Than In in New York: Every day that month, he unveiled a new public artwork in a different part of the city.

It’s also unclear if the goat and elephant stencils will be the only pieces Banksy reveals this week. Only time will tell.

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.