Robbo’s well documented take back of his original eighties piece location and the taunting slogans painted on a further three Banksy works on the Regents Canal all received a new twist late last week. Where he had painted ‘King Robbo’ three letters (‘Fuc’) have been prefixed to the front in a similar style giving it a new meaning. Now pretty much guaranteed to be buffed in the near future it will be interesting to see whether they decide to remove the whole thing, leave just Banksy’s painter or remove only the recently added ‘Fuc’. Someone in the councils going to have to make an artistic decision. And that is normally bad news….
Further along the waterway Banksy’s fisher boy has received a second modification. Originally he was fishing a tag out of the water but this was changed by Robbo to a sign saying ‘street cred’. Now he’s pulling in what looks like a fishing prohibited sign.
On the site previously occupied by the ‘I Don’t Believe In global Warming’ slogan a completely new stencil has appeared. A solitary bird with a paint roller for a head watches the wall where Banksy’s and later Robbo’s slogan appeared apparently waiting to pounce again and erase any further work that might be added.
Finally the text around Banksy’s rat in top hat and tails has been removed and to my eye has improved the look of the rat itself who now appears illuminated in a spot light. I love Banksy’s rats so it was good to see one of the little fellas make an appearance in London after a gap of of a few years.
What isn’t known for sure yet is who did the above alterations. Were they really the work of Banksy himself or some avenging street art fan (with quite a bit of organisational skill)? We may never know but you won’t find many who think this will be the last installment in this long running and to be honest at times tedious battle.
