“You paint 100 chimpanzees and they still call you a guerrilla artist”
—Banksy
Before the nightclub’s closure in 2010, the walls of the now-defunct Ocean Rooms in Brighton were once adorned with ten forlorn monkeys, each wearing an equal-sized sandwich board. Some boards were blank, while others assertively declared: "Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge." Originally commissioned for the nightclub’s interior in 2002, the six-metre-long, frieze-like mural Laugh Now was spray painted by Banksy using his signature stencil technique. In the following year, the Bristol-born artist produced an edition of 750 prints inspired by this image, to which the present lot belongs.
Consisting of a single, slumped-shouldered monkey in a fully frontal pose, the deceptively simple image is nevertheless deeply ambiguous. Despite his current oppression, the seemingly dejected monkey clenches his fingers tightly with defiant spirit, as the dramatic dripping paint effect at the bottom of the picture plane further hints at the imminence of revolt.
Within the prominent theme of anthropomorphised animals, Banksy has exhibited a particular preference for monkeys, partly because of the allegorical potential arising from their evolutionary proximity with humans. In this case, the monkey figure serves as a metaphor for the oppressed and the disenfranchised, allowing Banksy to champion the anti-establishment stance for which he is best known.
“Should graffiti be judged on the same level as modern art? Of course not: It’s way more important than that”
—Banksy
At the same time, Banksy’s own identification with the monkey figure adds an additional layer of complexity to the symbolic significance of the titular slogan: the street artist has repeatedly disguised himself with a monkey mask, first in the photography series Monkey Mask Session (2003), and later in the documentary film he directed titled Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). Laugh Now offers a powerful comment on the status of graffiti – the art form that has historically suffered from an unsavory reputation in the hierarchical art world but has increasingly received recognition in recent years.