Banksy Installs Anti-Imperialist Monument in Central London

Banksy is back. Not with a mural this time, but with a full-blown sculpture in the heart of London.

The provocateur from Bristol confirmed in a (https://www.instagram.com/p/DXwf7pis6KT/?ref=hyperallergic.com) today that he is indeed the creator of an imposing statue at Waterloo Place in Central London. To dispel any mystery, he also scratched his signature on the statue’s base.

The monument depicts a modern man in a suit walking off a plinth with his face covered by a flag.

Installed covertly in the early hours of Wednesday, April 29, the statue is in proximity to a cluster of monuments celebrating the bygone glory of the British Empire: bronzes of King Edward VII, Florence Nightingale, and the Crimean War Memorial.

A safe interpretation of the new artwork would be: Blinded by nationalistic fervor, the man with the flag walks surely toward his own demise.

“I don’t like it,” comments a passerby on Banksy’s statue in the Instagram video. “There’s a nice statue up there,” the man says, pointing at the old, familiar monuments.

And off he walks toward the proverbial abyss.

Banksy’s statue is nestled among British imperialist monuments.