Bomb Hugger
2003
Default
28 x 19.69 in
Year
2003
Medium
Prints
Reference
7ffed597
Screen print on paper, edition 417 of 600, 70 x 50 cm
Includes Pest Control COA
Bomb Hugger, also known as Bomb Love or Bomb Girl, is an early Banksy screen print. The image of a girl hugging a deadly weapon has become iconic and explores the dichotomy of love and war – a topic the artist is largely concerned with. A similar image first appeared as a mural in east London in 2003 and another appeared in Brighton the same year. Bomb Hugger features in Banksy’s autobiographical book Wall and Piece published in 2005. The image depicts a young girl with a ponytail hugging a bomb as if it were a cuddly toy. The bomb, akin to those dropped from military aircraft, is cumbersome held in the arms of a child. The girl herself is stencilled in black nd white on a blocked bubblegum pink background, accentuating her diminutive figure and evoking childhood posture, fragility and innocence. The treatment of the child’s figure is reminiscent of other young characters created by Banksy like the famous Girl with Balloon or the Ice Cream Bomb Girl painted on Brighton Beach in 2004.
Bomb Hugger highlights the contrast of two seemingly opposed subjects – the young girl representing innocence and purity, and the bomb symbolising war and violence. The image provokes anxiety in the viewer, depicting a child holding a deadly weapon, which might explode any minute.
, United Kingdom
Banksy was born in 1974, in England. He is a graffiti artist from Bristol, who is famous for his artworks, widespread all over the world. Despite his success, nobody knows his real name, due to the artist’s will to carefully keep his real name from the mainstream media. He is known for his original technique, which allows to distinguish his artworks immediately. In particular, he uses a combination with a distinctive stencilling technique, in order to promote alternative aspects of politics. There are different opinions about his work: someone believe that his works improve the quality of the urban environment where they are placed, giving a voice to the people who cannot express themselves; others think that his work is an example of vandalism or that his political beliefs (apparently left wing) are not shared by the majority of the inhabitants of the environments that he decorate. However, thanks to the secrecy around his real identity and his subversive character, Banksy has achieved somewhat of a cult following from some of the younger age group within the stencilling community.
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Address
London, 436 King's Rd, Chelsea
Tanya Baxter contemporary, based in London and Hong Kong, is a leading art advisory and gallery with nearly twenty-five years’ experience working in the Post-Modern, Modern British and Contemporary art market. The London Gallery, established in 1998, is situated in Chelsea. The Art Advisory office in Hong Kong is based in the up and coming Wong Chuk Hang D...
