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Shop NowWild animal graffiti has been popping up all over London. A fresh addition each day. Everyone knew they were “Banksy” originals, each worth millions because they were done by the viral artist. The common theme was obvious but everyone was left wondering what he was up to. Tuesday’s release was simple and elegant, leaving the public slapping their forehead and saying I knew it would be something like that. Knowing full well they never expected a Gorilla to be painted on the entrance to the London Zoo, setting all the graffiti animals free to roam the city. The rhino has already been defaced. By a less well known graffiti artist.
Animal graffiti everywhere
One by one, the animal images have been appearing across London. The earliest were a goat, “perched on a building buttress” and two hungry pelicans stealing fish from the sign for Bonners Fish Bar. A trio of monkeys swing along a vine-like feature of a train bridge.
Two elephants facing each other from windows was another attention grabber. They had everyone on the lookout for more. The public has been following along with great interest.
Most of the works are basic black silhouettes but not the tank of “piranhas circling a police guard post.” That’s in living 3-D color. The monkeys are another example of strategic placement but not nearly as perfect as the wolf howling at the full moon of a satellite dish.
Each animal mural is worth a fortune and not everyone appreciates being granted the honor of having one installed. The dish and wolf were both stolen almost instantly. Along with the valuable artwork come expensive responsibilities to keep it safe and secure.
The big cat, “stretching out on the back of a dilapidated billboard,” was stashed for safety “by three men who said they had been hired to take it down.” The piranhas were “removed from near the Old Bailey courthouse to the City of London corporate offices to protect it, a spokesperson said. It will eventually be placed where it can be viewed by the public.”
Some jealous or barbaric street tagger has already defaced the Banksy rhinoceros, cunningly depicted mounting a lopsided car with a flat tire. The car will now probably become part of the installation. Maybe the owner can get a few bucks for selling it to the owner of the wall the painting appears on. The animal artwork appeared for nine days in a row.
Zoo workers surprised
When London Zoo workers arrived with the animal chow on Tuesday, they were “surprised to discover an unexpected exhibit that suggested the animals were being set free.”
The mural shows “a gorilla holding up the entrance gate as birds took flight and a sea lion waddled away. Three sets of eyes peered out from the darkness inside.” Experts at the zoo have already identified the images.
Dan Simmonds, animal operations manager at the zoo, notes, “he’s assuming the primate in the mural is an endangered western lowland gorilla, the subspecies they have at the zoo.” One of the birds looks like a macaw and there is definitely a bat.
“As for the eyes, who knows, maybe some cats peering out. That’s the beauty of it. Literally only Banksy will know.” On Instagram, each image bears the London Zoo hashtag but Simmonds didn’t see it coming.
“We certainly didn’t expect it was actually going to happen right here, on one of our huge admission shutters. But coming in and seeing it, kind of realized that, yeah, we’re so lucky.”
The animal decorated roll-down shutter “was closed all day to show off the work. It’s the busy season for the zoo, but the renowned street artist quickly draws his own followers and crowds show up to view it and snap photos.” Workers already “shielded it later in the day with a see-through plastic covering.“
