Banksy vs Coronavirus: Smart Working for the Street Artist

Between digital exhibitions and online art, the world of culture has had to face the forced block of Cornovirus trying to stay close to its audience and to continue conveying its content and values. And even the artists had to endeavour to find a way to make their voice heard even if they were far from the studio or, as in this case, from the street.

Banksy vs Coronavirus: Smart Working for the Street Artist

Banksy, artist native of Bristol, now one of the most famous and valued in the world, gained again the attention of the public with a new work dedicated to the Smart Working, a need become normality due to the isolation resulting from the epidemic. Banksy's new work, in an ironic and playful way, tells just that: it shows a home bathroom (Banksy's house?) in which rats play turning it upside down. The cute rodents jump on toothpaste tubes, drop soap, unroll a roll of toilet paper and urinate on the toilet seat. And as if they were in a prison, they mark on the wall with lipstick the days spent in quarantine.

The work (click HERE to see it) appeared on Banksy’s official Instagram profile, overcoming in a few hours the million likes and ten thousand comments. The caption says "My wife hates it when I work from home", an ironic reference to smart working and to the effects of isolation on an artist and an artistic movement that should have the street as space of expression.

Banksy: "Rat" anagram of "Art"

Icon of the street artist, the rat is the protagonist of many works by Banksy. Rat - Art is the pun on which this choice is based: "rat" is the anagram of "art" and it suggests an identification between the animal and the street art itself, which, like the rodent, lives in the streets, at night and without permission.

Rats usually appear in human attitudes and in unusual or comic situations in Banksy's art, like in the renowned Placard Rat series or in this new work dedicated to smart working. Allegory of the human race, they often reveal human vices and flaws in a lucid and disillusioned representation of our society.

Who is Banksy? If we still don't know his identity, this work (choosing to believe it) seems to give us some clues: the street artist has a wife and he is locked in the house too.