Banksy Unveils Fourth Piece in London: A Howling Wolf Joins an Ark of Animals

The fourth in a string of Banksy works has appeared in London: a howling wolf stenciled onto a white satellite dish. The work appeared overnight, popping up in the Peckham borough of South London, according to the Mirror. 

Then part of the work quickly disappeared. According to photographs of the site, the dish has been removed and was allegedly stolen.

This new series of Banksy works, each of which portrays on animals, seems have begun on Monday, when a stenciled goat was found precariously balanced on the buttress of a wall new Kew Bridge in Richmond, a town in southwest London. Rocks tumble from the goat’s feet in full view of a surveillance camera on the wall pointing directly at the long horned bovine, which looks down onto the street. On Tuesday, two elephants reached their outstretched trucks toward one another from appears to be boarded up windows in Chelsea. And yesterday, three monkeys were spotted, in mid-swing, on Brick Lane. 

In each case, the enigmatic street artist has claimed the work as his own via Instagram. There has not yet been any explanation for his recent burst of productivity or the meaning behind the Ark’s worth of animals.

Some have speculated on what these works may signify anyway. Three of the four pictures on Banksy’s Instagram account show humans blissfully unaware of the stenciled animals near them. That led one user to posit, “There’s definitely a sense that including the people in all these pics is giving off a sense of ignorance to the wild around them.”

Some take an overtly pessimistic view of Banksy’s new work. “Humanity is not going to last… animals will be taking over 🖤,” one user posted to Instagram. Others see a narrative building in the series: “One animal, isolated and helpless; Two animals, watching out for each other; Three animals, overcoming difficulties together?”

Theories range from support of the Palestinian struggle—“a lot of people asking him to paint about Palestine, the gap in the legs is the shape of what’s left isn’t it,” one user said of the goat mural—to the need to reconnect to nature and the importance of family and community. The only thing for certain is that the public wants more. “Same time again tomorrow? ⏳,” one user posted.