BANKSY // Clown with Cops, 1998

  • Banksy’s 1998 Clown with Cops shows clown escorted by police, mixing absurdity with authority satire.
    Banksy, Clown with Cops, 1998.
    © Banksy.
    Clown with Cops (1998) is one of Banksy’s earliest confrontations with authority, combining satire with visual absurdity. The scene shows a group of police officers escorting or restraining a clown, a figure of chaos and humour pitted against the rigidity of law enforcement. The juxtaposition destabilises the seriousness of authority, undermining the weight of the uniform with the ridiculousness of the clown.
     
    By casting the police in opposition to a comic figure, Banksy questions the legitimacy of power and control, highlighting how systems of order often appear arbitrary or even farcical. This early work reveals his instinct for irony, ridiculing authority not through aggression but through theatre. Clown with Cops signals Banksy’s enduring focus on authority, rebellion, and the collapse of seriousness under satire.
     
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  • "A lot of people never use their initiative because no one told them to."

    - Banksy 

    Created in 1998, Clown with Cops depicts a surreal confrontation. Police officers surround a lone clown, who stands out in sharp contrast to the otherwise uniformed figures. The composition plays on visual dissonance: the comic performer becomes both vulnerable and defiant, a stand-in for absurdity against the machinery of state control. This work illustrates Banksy’s early ability to distil political commentary into a simple yet provocative image, using humour to challenge power.
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