Parachuting Rat

Parachuting Rat was a black rat with aviator glasses descending by parachute. Banksy's oeuvre is largely directed towards anti-capitalist and anti-war themes, and this piece was painted in 2003. Banksy's work is described as distinctive in style, satirical, and provocative. Banksy himself has written, in connection with his works involving rats, 'they exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted … if you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model'; that 'you can win the rat race but you're still a rat'; and also that he had been painting rats for three years before someone told him that the word is an anagram of art. ==Medium==

Parachuting Rat was executed using stencils and spray paint. While earlier in his career Banksy painted freehand, in his later work from the mid-2000s he adopted the use of stencils to accelerate the creative process and reduce the likelihood of being caught. His works generally appear anonymously and overnight. Banksy has written that 'graffiti…is the most honest artform available. There is no elitism or hype … nobody is put off by the price of admission. A wall has always been the best place to publish your work'. ==Context==

Melbourne is recognised as the street art capital of Australia. Banksy, who spent a few months in the city earlier in his career, described the city's street art as 'arguably Australia's most significant contribution to the arts since they stole all the Aborigines' pencils'. Parachuting Rat adorned the wall above a doorway of a council building behind the Forum Theatre in Hosier Lane, a tourist attraction which attracts up to a thousand people a day because of its street art. ==Removal==

While Melbourne has a policy of encouraging street art, it also has a problem with gangs tagging walls and public property. Melbourne's deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley sent cleaners to Hosier Lane after residents complained about squalid conditions in the alley. The cleaners were instructed to tidy up the rat-infested garbage and remove all graffiti from unapproved street art sites. Leaving alone the approved sites, the cleaners painted over Parachuting Rat, by then thought to be the only remaining work by Banksy on public view in the city, with a thick layer of battleship-grey paint. Challenged at the time by a local resident, the cleaners replied 'we are just doing what we're told'. Another was destroyed in May 2012 by builders working on plumbing. The building owner, who knows Banksy through a New York contact, said that he laughed at the fact that "TV Cameras took an interest in his work" in an email she sent them about the incident. ==Reaction==

Melbourne Council Robert Doyle, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, who had recently posed for a publicity photo before Hosier Lane's street art, praised such art as 'legitimate expression of artistic intent', although he also said Parachuting Rat 'was not the Mona Lisa' and declared it an 'honest mistake' by the cleaners. Art world Parachuting Rat was potentially worth tens of thousands of pounds. ==See also==