“As soon as I cut my first stencil, I could feel the power there. I also like the political edge. All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.”
—Banksy
Internationally recognised for his powerful reworkings of popular imagery and documentary photography, Banksy demonstrates how art can be used as a tool for social and political commentary, and perhaps even change. The present work, Napalm, is a prime example of this practice. An edition derived from the original Napalm painting, Banksy adopts the imagery from the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph, The Terror of War. Photographed by Nick Út on 8th June 1972, the image remains a visceral example of the atrocities committed during the Vietnam War, which included the use of chemical weapons like napalm.
In Banksy’s satire the photograph’s central protagonist, a nine-year-old girl named Phan Thị Kim Phúc, is joined in arms with the childhood figures of the American capitalist economy, Mickey Mouse, and Ronald McDonald. The outward innocence of these cooperations is brought into central focus: superficial smiles juxtaposed with Kim’s desperate screams. Part of Banksy’s continuous dialogue with household industries realised through spectacles like Dismaland in Weston-super-Mare during the summer of 2015, Napalm remains a prime example of the artist’s commitment to the socio-political criticism of modern society.
Current and confrontational, the anonymous Bristol Street artist gained public notoriety in the 1990s, particularly following his rapid campaign of stencils in London from 1999. It was after an encounter with the police at eighteen that Banksy arrived at his signature stencil technique. While hiding beneath a vehicle during the chase, the artist noticed the stencilled plate on the fuel tank: ‘I realised I had to cut my painting time in half or give it up altogether’. Street art remains integral to Banksy’s identity, most recently with his captivating mural in Finsbury Park painted in March of this year - demonstrating his interest not only in the creation of public art, but also its ability to influence.
