Graffiti is the violent protest of an artist. The illegal nature of the medium makes it attract more attention while being a means of sociopolitical commentary and self-expression. The image above is a work done by the famous yet anonymous UK artist, Banksy.
The work, like most graffiti, is done on a wall. However, it may not look like the typical graffiti one may find along a subway track or on an urban wall. Instead, the image of the children seem hand-drawn while the paradise in the 'hole' almost seems to be real. With paint buckets in tow, the children appear to have actually painted the scenery.
The deeper connotation for this artwork can be found in its context. Rather than any simple wall, this wall happens to be along Israel's West Bank barrier. The West Bank along with the Gaza Strip have been deeply controversial territory stretching back before the Second World War.
Shortly after painting the piece, Banksy wrote on his website,
"How illegal is it to vandalize a wall if the wall itself has been deemed unlawful by the International Court of Justice? The Israeli government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories. It stands three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700 km—the distance from London to Zurich. The International Court of Justice last year ruled the wall and its associated regime illegal. It essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open-air prison.”
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