Arboreal art
Victoria Jones/PA
Banksy, the gheyly-named street artist; sociopolitical commentator; and all-round enigma, struck again in north London over the weekend, when he painted a mural that returned a recently-pollarded tree to leafy splendour. It must have come as some relief to the locals, who're more accustomed to looking down while navigating Britain's dogshit-strewn pavements, because Islington Council spent taxpayers' money to install a protective fence, and further plan to install CCTV. It's gotta be a great life, living in Islington with so much public money sloshing around. (rolleyes)
But that hasn't stopped one fellow street artist—who may, or may not, be Banksy himself trying to stir up a little controversy—from entering into the cultural dialogue. The revision to the original work was done by the simple expedient of throwing white paint over the mural. Clearly, this recreates the appearance of snow, and on a tree in leaf it can only be a comment on climate change. (no)
While some people are indignant at the desecration of what appears to be a fairly lazy mural, at least one local resident got it:
Retired local art teacher Don Campbell told BBC London he thought the white paint "kind of adds to it and distracts from it as well, at the same time". "It's part of the history of just what can happen in a few days or so," he said.
Thomas Mackintosh, Anna O'Neill, and Ayshea Buksh, BBC News
But was it really necessary to apply three of the BBC's crack urinalists to write a 725-words story? I mean, I realise Banksy's an enigma, striking fast before dissolving into the shadows; part of the cultural zeitgeist an' all that. But he's only a bloody wall dauber; it's not as if he's Zorro, is it?