“All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars”
—BanksyFlower Thrower Triptych (Grey) presents one of Banksy’s most identifiable and famed motifs, quintessential to the artist’s socially charged imagery combining despair and satire. A young male figure wearing a bandana and a backwards-turned baseball cap is caught in the moment of throwing a bouquet of flowers as if it were a Molotov cocktail – a scene which has become a core example of the artist’s witty and perceptive commentaries on sociopolitical issues.
The juxtaposition of the vehemence of the thrower and the bouquet of flowers creates an oxymoron that lies at the heart of the composition. The young man is leaning backwards, his arms and shoulders arched towards an invisible but dangerous enemy, giving momentum to the composition and building a climax as if something striking and unpredictable is about to happen. But, at the same time, the protagonist of the work is depicted as somewhat isolated from the war that we are brought to imagine is around him; he is taken out of context. Stripped of any specific historical and political reference, it becomes an archetypal and enduring image. The plain grey of the background, which drips onto the young man and bouquet, contributes to establishing the atemporality of the image.
Banksy executed the original image for this work, under the title Love is in the Air, on the occasion of his first solo exhibition, Existencillism, at Gallery 33 1/3, Los Angeles, in 2002. The title evoked the 1960s pacifist slogan “Make Love Not War”, as an encouragement of peaceful resistance and humanity. However, not long after, the stencil’s first appearance as graffiti was on Jerusalem’s West Bank Wall in 2003, shortly after it was erected. Reflecting the tumultuous and complex nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Banksy recalled a local resident thanking him for making the wall beautiful, only to then remark “We don’t want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home.”
To this day, Banksy's Flower Thrower figure remains a symbol of hope and peace for many people, enduring as one of the most iconic images of the twenty-first century. It may also be considered as a representation of Banksy himself: the mysterious graffiti artist – an outsider in a constant collision with the system, who lives in anonymity, moves in the shadows and evades vigilance with ease. Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), therefore, is a personal, powerful and timeless call for peace, delivered with a force no less powerful than a grenade.
