BANKSY // Radar Rat, 2004

  • Banksy’s 2004 Radar Rat with satellite on back, symbol of surveillance in modern society.

    Banksy, Radar Rat, 2004.

    Stencil spray-paint and screen-print in colours on wove paper, 36 × 36 cm.
    © Banksy.

    Also known as Sonic Rat, Radar Rat is one of Banksy’s most recognisable symbols. Shown upright, headphones on, he clutches a tape recorder in one paw and a radar dish in the other. Behind him, a red spiral pulses outward like a signal - a clear nod to the rising tide of surveillance in major cities.
     
    First seen on London’s streets in the early 2000s, Radar Rat embodies the watchful outsider - tuned in, alert, and quietly resistant. He’s one of many rats in Banksy’s world: creatures dismissed as pests, yet here cast as intelligent observers of a chaotic system.
     
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  • “Rats are the triumph of the little people, the undesirables and the unloved. They are the ultimate survivors.”

    – Banksy

    Also known as Sonic Rat, Radar Rat is one of Banksy’s most recognisable vermin icons. Standing upright with headphones clamped over his ears, he carries a tape recorder in one paw and a radar dish in the other. Behind him, a concentric red spiral radiates like a broadcast signal, an unmistakable reference to the growing surveillance culture that was gripping cities in the early 2000s.
    In Banksy’s visual language, rats have always represented survival, resistance, and rebellion. Here, the creature is transformed into both a listener and a broadcaster, reflecting the dual paranoia and empowerment of an age dominated by surveillance, technology, and state control. Seen on the streets of London, Radar Rat quickly became one of his most enduring and widely reproduced motifs.
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