Banksy Adds Amorous Rhino to London Spray Safari

Banksy b. 1974, United Kingdom Follow +

Banksy posted another stencil of an animal to his Instagram yesterday. A rhinoceros appears to be depressing the back end of a silver compact car in an attempt to copulate with it. The rhino’s confusion can be blamed on a dirty traffic cone placed on the car’s bonnet, resembling a horn.

The rhino is the eighth in a series of animal paintings released over the past week, including a mountain goat, elephants, and three monkeys swinging from a railway bridge.

A wolf silhouette painted on a satellite dish, as if baying in front of the moon, was stolen and a mountain lion, shown stretching on a dilapidated billboard, was removed by its owner and donated to a museum.

Taken together, Banksy’s summer sprays are reminiscent of one of the opening scenes in the film 12 Monkeys (1995).

It’s the year 2034 and a pandemic has all but annihilated humanity. James Cole, played by Bruce Willis, emerges from a manhole cover to discover a Philadelphia devoid of people. Escaped zoo animals—including a grizzly bear and a lion—have taken over the city. Cole wipes away some snow to reveal a spray paint stencil: a ring of red monkeys that’s not so dissimilar to a Banksy painting.

While we are living in a post-pandemic world, it’s unlikely Banksy is augering such an apocalypse in his 2024 summer series.

The Observer writes that interpretation of the animal paintings has been ‘way too involved’, according to Banksy support organisation Pest Control Office.

They suggest the paintings are just a bit of fun, similar to the Spraycation paintings executed in Great Yarmouth, on England’s east coast, in 2021.

The works included visual puns similar to the rhino-car, such as a huge seagull hovering over a dumpster full of timber as if it were a punnet of chips.

The new sprays are not all without bite, though. Banksy also painted a tank of piranhas on a police box in London’s financial district. —[O]

Main image: Courtesy Banksy's Instagram.