As the city of London geared up for Christmas festivities, they were greeted by two new Banksy murals in different corners of the city.
The first mural, located at Tottenham Court Road station, was discovered on Monday morning. It features two kids lying on the ground and looking upwards. One of the kids is pointing at something above with his finger. At first glance, it looks like an innocent portrayal of two kids stargazing and looking at the heavens. Some pointed out that the kids are looking at the Star of David, while others mention the heavens.
But that’s not the usual style of Banksy, the mysterious artist who is known for satirizing and highlighting social issues through their work. The more cynical message becomes clearer when one really looks around the location of the mural: just outside the Centre Point skyscraper. The Centre Point, a 34-storey behemoth, was built in 1966 to serve as a hub for high-end and luxury corporate offices. However, the building failed to capture its desired clientele and remained almost empty for years. In 2015, the building was sold and converted into a luxurious residential apartment, but it still failed to find buyers and continued to remain almost uninhabited. This was in high contrast to the rampant homeless problem in London. As such, the mural perhaps better captures the homeless kids, without a roof above their heads, staring at the sky-touching apartments that remain empty.
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The second, identical mural appeared on Queen’s Mew Street at Bayswater. While it is nothing new for the artist to reveal multiple murals simultaneously, creating an identical mural is indeed a new move. It is the first new Banksy work in more than three months.
