"When that mural first appeared, depicting a bewigged judge looming over a bloodied protester, it was provocative enough (see more excellent street art here). But it was also, if we're honest, kinda obvious. Free speech good, jailing protestors bad. Message received, and filed under 'Things We Already Know About Power Structures'. But then the authorities did exactly what Banksy no doubt expected them to: scrambled to erase it. And here's when the magic happened."
"What remains isn't a painting; it's a phantom. A blurred outline that whispers, rather than screams. In short, the scrubbing has created something far more unsettling than the original image: a ghostly apparition of state repression. And the very act of censorship has given added meaning to the piece, transforming a straightforward cartoon into something quite haunting. All this makes me remember how this isn't the first time Banksy's work has been elevated by forces beyond his control."
A Banksy mural outside the Royal Courts of Justice depicted a bewigged judge over a bloodied protester, delivering an obvious critique of free speech and protest policing. Authorities scrubbed the image, leaving a blurred, ghostlike outline that conveys a more unsettling sense of state repression; the act of erasure added layers of meaning. A precedent exists in 2018 when a Sotheby's-sold Banksy self-destructed via a hidden shredder, producing the work known as Love is in the Bin after the mechanism jammed. Unintended interventions and institutional reactions can intensify and transform street art's message.
Read at Creative Bloq
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]