But for Banksy, rodents are resourceful and rebellious. In Radar Rat, the rat is standing on its hind legs, listening to the world through its headphones – a nod to the ever-growing surveillance state. The 12" vinyl was released in 5 colour variations, each a limited edition, the rarest being a rat with a pink radar on a white backround. In 2008, Radar Rat featured on the cover of Dirty Funker’s music album Future. Only 75 signed prints were created, making Radar Rat one of Banksy’s rarest rat prints – excluding the special colour variations for Gangsta Rat. It was later released as a print under the title Sonic Rat at Banksy’s ‘ Santa’s Ghetto‘ pop-up shop. Radar Rat originally appeared on the walls around London in 2002. Today in London, rats can still be found on Tooley Street and Chiswell Street.įind more London Banksy murals to visit here.
This must be why Banksy's stencilled street rats have popped up almost everywhere that the artist has visited over for many years. They are the embodiment of the street artist's 'plague on the state' in their dissemination as well as their design. It could be significant, given this, that while we have seen Banksy rat prints, and Banksy rat grafitti, we haven't yet seen an original Banksy artwork (beyond the street setting) featuring rats. If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model." And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees. They live in quiet desperation amongst the filth.
On another page from Wall and Piece, the artist wrote: Rats are at the heart of Banksy's art, so much so that some have speculated about the fact that 'rat' is an anagram of 'art.' While this sort of visual-verbal wordplay is certainly a key part of street art, Banksy wrote in his book, Wall and Piece: “I’d been painting rats for three years before someone said ‘that’s clever, it’s an anagram of art’ and I had to pretend I’d known that all along.”įor Banksy, each rat brings his political and social commentary to life – they present street artists, rebels, the downtrodden masses and anyone who feels rejected by society.
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