• BANKSY    Editions

  • Banksy’s 2003 Happy Chopper with attack helicopter and pink bow, satire of military power.
    Banksy, Happy Chopper, 2003.
    Screen-print in colours on wove paper, 70 × 50 cm. Edition of 750 (150 signed).
    © Banksy.

    Happy Chopper, 2003

    The Happy Chopper, 2003 print release presents an Apache helicopter against a child-like, blue sky background.  This work has appeared in a number of forms, but was originally created during the early 2000s to criticise the military industrial complex through the use of juxtaposition and humour. 
     
    The contrast between the detailed representation of the helicopter with the cartoonish bow and simple clouds can be interpreted as denouncing militarism by presenting both child-like iconography and heavy weaponry in order to delegitimise the position of authority. This approach contiues throughout Banksy's work and is an approach common in protest and satirical art.

  • "At its best art can make connections between two disparate things - like a fork and a plug socket"

     

    - Banksy

    The image of the chopper first appeared publically in London as part of a mural in Whitecross Market. Originating during a time when the Iraq war was regularly discussed within the British consciousness, the work is interpreted as referencing this particular conflict, however does appear throughout Banksy's career in a number of other artworks. This recurring motif serves as Banksy’s commentary on the normalisation of warfare and its intrusion into civilian life.