British Home Secretary James Cleverly Lambasts Banksy’s Inflatable Migrant Boat as ‘Vile’
The elusive street artist clapped back via Instagram raising awareness to the real humanitarian work his team accomplishes.
Update:
British Home Secretary James Cleverly has lambasted Banksy’s inflatable migrant boat that floated over crowds this past weekend at Glastonbury, labelling it a “vile” act that celebrates “the loss of life in the Channel.” It’s certainly not the first time a politician completely missed the point of an artist seeking to raise awareness to an issue that sed party has exacerbated. And given the current socio-political climate, it assuredly won’t be the last in the coming months.
“Something like that, I think, is deeply distasteful,” Cleverly added. “I mean children die in the Channel because of the actions of these vile criminals and joking about it and celebrating, I think it is acompletely unacceptable. To joke about it, to celebrate it at a pop festival when there have been children dying in the Channel, is completely unacceptable.”
Banksy responded via Instagram, saying that Cleverly’s criticism was “a bit over the top,” adding that the real boat he funds, the MV Louise Michel, “rescued 17 unaccompanied children from the central Med on Monday night. As punishment the Italian authorities have detained it — which seems vile and unacceptable to me.”
The elusive street artist had staged several previous acts at Glastonbury before, galvanizing festival attendees to animal rights in 2014, knife violence in collaboration with Stormzy, and now the refugee crisis — the latter group being villainized by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who aims to “stop the boats” across the channel, as one of his main campaign promises.
Original Story: Banksy made a special appearance this weekend at Glastonbury in the form of an inflatable raft that surfed above IDLES‘ set. The artwork raises awareness to the growing refugee crisis that has been exacerbated by prime minister Rishi Sunak’s hardline stance on immigration and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, amongst many other geopolitical tensions across the world.
The raft appeared during the Bristol band’s song “Danny Nedelko”, which opens:
My blood brother is an immigrant
A beautiful immigrantMy blood brother’s Freddie Mercury
A Nigerian mother of threeHe’s made of bones, he’s made of blood
He’s made of flesh, he’s made of love
He’s made of you, he’s made of me
UnityFear leads to panic, panic leads to pain
Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate
Migration was an overarching conversation for Glastonbury this year, as the festival has a section dedicated to the theme in Terminal 1. The elusive street artist had created work before for Glasto, famously designing the Union Jack stab-proof vest Stormzy wore in 2019 and the van of stuffed animal livestock Banksy toured around the grounds in 2014.
Elsewhere at the festival, Serbian conceptual artist Marina Abramović performed one of her most daring acts yet, asking the raucous Pyramid Stage to stay silent for seven minutes as a tribute and call to action to the “dark moment” currently facing the socio-political order.
