Flying Copper

Screen print on wove paper

Unsigned edition of 600 with Full Pest Contol COA

Framed to Museum Standard with Optimum Acrylic

116 x 86.5 cm (Framed)

A very early Bansky piece, Flying Copper shows an armed police officer with a striking yellow smiley face. This evokes the 1990s acid house culture but also a simply drawn popular and childlike design, together with angel wings attached to his back. The symbolism of the smiling face juxtaposed with an assault rifle and armour shows a striking image of oppression and threat hiding behind a friendly face. Classic Banksy mixing authority with humour.

It first appeared under several giant cut-out paintings suspended on cardboard from the ceiling at Turf War, Banksy’s first major exhibition in a warehouse in East London in 2003. The cut-outs were later spotted on the streets of Vienna and London, where the stencil appeared with a distinct red Banksy tag through the middle of it. Shoreditch Bridge also featured a row of Flying Coppers at some point.

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