Banksy has unveiled the eighth artwork in his animal-themed collection in London, a silhouette of a rhinoceros which looks as though it is climbing on top of a car.
The street artist has been posting artwork to his Instagram at about 1pm every day since Monday August 5, and the latest piece shows a rhino mounting a silver Nissan Micra, with a traffic cone on its bonnet.
On Westmoor Street in Charlton , south east London, the work is positioned on the side of a building and gives the appearance the animal is mounting another rhino in the shape of the broken-down car, with the traffic cone representing a horn.
His first piece depicted a goat and was followed by silhouettes of elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans, a cat and fish, which have all popped up in various locations across London.
A manager at a recycling site who works near the location of Banksy’s latest artwork said it is “nice” to “see something different” in the area.
Michael Orajekwe told the PA news agency: “I was going for my lunch break and there was a lot of people in the street where I work, so obviously I was like, ‘Wow, what’s going on?’
“So I just came around and people explained to me that it’s a popular artist, a social artist called Banksy.”
He added: “This is the first time I’ve seen his work, it’s a nice thing because I get to spend my lunch doing fun stuff.”
Mr Orajekwe added that he had not heard of the street artist beforehand and said that finding out who he is “affects your judgement”.
Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, an artist who has been painting the new art pieces, said Banksy’s rhinoceros is his “best” yet in the animal-themed series.
He told PA: “I’ve been following Banksy all week, I’ve been sketching all the animals.
“I got an alert that there was a new Banksy so I rushed down here.
“I think this could be the best in my opinion. It’s very witty, it’s a great idea.”
Mr Lloyd-Morgan also said that it looks as though the glass on the car’s sunroof has been crushed to make it seem like the weight of the animal is pushing down on the car.
On Sunday, Banksy confirmed he was behind a work depicting a school of piranhas which appeared on a police sentry box in the City of London .
A City of London Corporation spokesman said they were looking at options to “preserve” it.
On Monday a crowd of people stood around taking photographs of the fish tank-themed Banksy near the Old Bailey as workmen in high-vis jackets cordoned it off.
In the historic Old Bailey courts, Judge Mark Lucraft KC discharged a jury after it failed to reach a verdict in a death by careless driving trial, and suggested they might enjoy the warm weather with a visit to the nearby Banksy instead.
The artist’s sixth piece, a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising hoarding, was removed from its location in north-west London hours after it was unveiled on Saturday.
Crowds booed as the piece in Cricklewood was dismantled by three men who said they were “hired” by a “contracting company” to take down the billboard for safety reasons.
The cat design was the second piece to be removed last week after a painting of a howling wolf on a satellite dish was taken off the roof of a building in Peckham , south London, less than an hour after it was unveiled.
A spokesman for Banksy told the PA news agency that the artist is neither connected to nor endorses the theft of the wolf design and that they have “no knowledge as to the dish’s current whereabouts”.
The fifth piece to be unveiled last week was on Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow, east London, and shows a pelican stooping to scoop up a fish on the takeaway’s sign, while another is tossing one in the air.
A message on the shop’s Facebook page at the weekend said: “So proud to have a @banksy on the side of our shop! Thank you for choosing us, and Walthamstow to showcase your talent.”
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