Barcode Banksy

Banksy, Barcode, Unsigned screenprint, edition of 600, 2004

Barcode is an unsigned screenprint by British Street Artist Banksy and was released in 2004. Banksy often employs a monochromatic palette to emphasise his powerful message and this black and white artwork is that signature stencil-style. It shows a majestic leopard in the foreground as though leaving the artwork itself. Behind the leopard is a cage, which clearly, resembles a barcode from which the leopard seems to have escaped, given the bent bars of the cage/barcode. Since Banksy’s beginnings in graffiti and Street Art, he has been noted for his social commentary, taking on issues from police brutality, to the refugee crisis, war and animal cruelty. Here Banksy is surely commenting on the way in which humans 'use' the environment and those creatures within it for their own entertainment or amusement – the most notable example of course, being zoos or sea-parks.