Through this type of work, he crafts a subtle critique of Japan’s contemporary consciousness as well as the West’s intruding influence upon it. In this early canvas-based work, painted when he was only twenty years old, a patchwork skull is featured, a pictorial equivalent of the monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, constructed as a sutured sum of incongruent parts. In this iconic image, two British male police officers in full uniform kiss. Composed on the side of a Brighton pub, the piece caused quite a stir, provoking both members of the public and the police force to show up for their own prized selfies. It was replaced with a fresh copy protected by a Perspex case when the original was removed and flown to the United States to be sold at auction. Bansky is largely responsible for catapulting guerrilla work into the mainstream as a viable form of art.
A …