Banksy reemerges with new Brexit artwork in Dover

Banksy has struck again, creating a giant three-storey high mural on a building next to the A20 in Dover, near the ferry terminal.

Onlookers spotted the work on Sunday morning and took to Twitter to speculate who had made it, with the style pointing firmly in the direction of the elusive Bristol-based artist.

Shortly afterward, the work was confirmed as genuine as two images were posted on Banksy’s official Instagram page.

It depicts a workman chipping away at one of the stars of the European flag, an obvious play on the impeding departure of the UK from the European Union, following last June’s referendum and the invoking of Article 50 in March. Its location, also, is a fairly straightforward reference to Dover’s position as the gateway to Europe via the Channel Tunnel and the town’s ferry terminal.

While Banksy usually tends to create imagery which appears to be one thing and then turns out to be the opposite – witness his 2015 theme park Dismaland – it’s difficult to know what he is trying to say with this latest work. There doesn’t seem to be any particular point being made, simply a statement of fact – that the UK is leaving the EU.

For now, it seems that the UK’s will be the only star removed from the flag, given France’s decision to elect the pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron as president with an overwhelming majority, although the decision of 11 million people to back the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen means that nothing can be ruled out in the future.

(Images: Banksy)