Kishwar Desai | Graffiti art cheers post-riots London; Edinburgh is back, but with ‘warnings’

After a summer of the worst riots ever, it was a time to introspect and think about who lights these sudden fires. And how quickly the social fabric of a stable nation can be torn down. People were still in shock and mourning over the deaths of the girls in Southport and then the egregious violence which followed made everything so much worse: largely due to falsehoods being spread on social media. Thus, we needed some diversion — and it came in a form of a bit of playful intervention from the artist, Banksy, who has remained a mysterious commentator on our times and on the art world. Banksy, in the last week or so has unveiled a series of graffiti — animal themed “artworks” all over the city. Perhaps to remind us of the wonder of the natural world — even as we struggle to deal with the trauma of the real, conflicted world. So he has spray-painted on the walls and buildings all over the city — monkeys, pelicans, rhinos, gorillas, elephants, cleverly merging real objects into the art giving it a very unique 3-D effect, which is his trademark. Thus, upon two real bricked up windows in...