BANKSY // Love Hurts, 2012

  • Banksy’s 2012 Love Hurts heart-shaped balloon with bandage, symbol of fragile love.
    Banksy, Love Hurts, 2012.
    Screen-print and hand-finished watercolour on paper, 68 × 70 cm.
    © Banksy.
    Love Hurts shows a red heart-shaped mylar balloon caught behind barbed wire against a pale blue background. The balloon, marked by bandages, suggests damage and vulnerability, symbolising the fragility of love.
     
    Banksy explores love’s dual nature, its power to bring both joy and pain. The balloon’s struggle to break free from the barbed wire captures human resilience amid emotional hardship, delivering a quietly powerful message beneath its simple imagery.
     
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  • "Love is a bit like electricity. You can’t see it, but you can make it light up a room — or kill you."

     — Banksy

    In Love Hurts, Banksy employs one of his most enduring motifs, the balloon,  to explore the complexities of love and human vulnerability. The red heart-shaped mylar balloon hovers against a pale blue ground, but instead of floating freely, it is tangled in barbed wire. A scattering of bandages reinforces the sense of fragility, transforming a familiar symbol of innocence and hope into an image of struggle and endurance.
    The work balances simplicity with emotional depth. By combining the universal emblem of a heart with the harshness of wire and wounds, Banksy reflects on love’s ability to heal and harm in equal measure. This juxtaposition speaks to his wider practice, where sharp contrasts expose the tensions of contemporary life while leaving space for resilience and hope.
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