Banksy – Smiling Copper

These policemen are examples of Banksy’s outdoor art, taken from the public locations where he originally painted them. Even though they are more than 2 metres high, their yellow smiley faces don’t give a feeling of order and authority at all. It’s as though Banksy continuously works on trying to achieve a shift in our minds, telling us that authority is not what we think it is.

Policemen feature a great deal in Banksy’s work and always in a way that tries to subvert the image we have of them as authority figures. He shows riot police dancing in a field and smelling flowers, two policemen passionately kissing each other, and a British bobby looking at us rudely and giving us the finger in a way that policemen are never supposed to do.