BANKSY // Applause, 2006

  • Banksy’s 2006 Applause artwork with crowd cheering airstrikes, satirising media spectacle.

    Banksy, Applause, 2006.
    Screen-print in colours on Arches wove paper, 80 × 120 cm.
    © Banksy.

    Applause shows two air traffic controllers preparing a fighter jet for takeoff, highlighted by yellow vests and a bright red sign reading “APPLAUSE.” This print mocks how the media turns war and violence into a spectacle, directing the public like a studio audience on when and how to react.
     
    Banksy critiques how the media often turns serious violence and war into spectacle and entertainment, desensitising the public. Like a live studio audience told when and how to react, the artwork suggests we’re manipulated into applauding conflict rather than questioning it.

     

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  • "Sometimes it seems like the whole system is just there to keep people amused – so they don’t notice what’s really happening."

    – Banksy 

    With characteristic wit, Banksy suggests that the public has been conditioned to consume war as spectacle, clapping on cue while ignoring the human cost. The piece highlights how news cycles, political rhetoric, and popular culture can desensitise us to brutality, reframing conflict as performance. Like much of his work, Applause is a provocation – asking whether we are participants in resisting war, or passive spectators applauding from the sidelines.
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