Why is a balloon said to be 'the slave of the wind'?
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Answer:
Girl With Balloon
BANKSY
Find out more about Banksy’s ‘Girl With Balloon’ series, browse prints & editions for sale & view the works wanted by active buyers right now.
Balloon Girl, or Girl With Balloon, is one of Banksy’s most important works, demonstrating the graffiti stencil technique for which Banksy has become renowned around the world.
The work was released as an unsigned and signed print in 2004/2005 in low edition sizes; there are just 150 Girl With Balloon signed prints, and 600 unsigned, making it one of the most sought-after works from the artist’s oeuvre.
The work depicts a young girl, whose hair and dress are blowing in the wind, reaching for, or releasing, a red, heart-shaped balloon that has slipped from her grasp. The gesture and the red balloon, an archetypal symbol of childhood and freedom, present a powerful message that can be read in a number of ways. Whether you see the girl as losing the balloon, or about to catch it, the meaning can be interpreted as a loss of innocence or the arrival of new hope and love.
This work, which was accompanied by a quotation that read ‘there is always hope’, originally appeared in London’s Southbank, although it was later painted over by the council. In response Banksy produced it again in a new context – a miniature version appeared on the cardboard backing of a cheap Ikea frame which quickly made its mark on the art market when it realised £73,250 at a sale at Bonhams in 2012.
Since then versions of Girl with Balloon have realised will above this, the print version peaking for now in September 2020 when Girl with Balloon – Colour AP (Purple) realised £791,250 in Christie’s second offering of their aptly named online auction, ‘Banksy: I can’t believe you morons actually buy this sh*t’. Girl with Balloon – Colour AP (Purple) features a very rare purple heart balloon instead of the classic red version. Achieving over double its high estimate, the screenprint smashed the previous auction record held by a Banksy print, set by Girl with Balloon – Colour AP (Gold) in September 2019 for £395,250.
Another version of the original street art version one the work was stencil painted in Shoreditch, near Liverpool Street station, and sparked outrage when the owners of a shop proposed to peel it off the wall and send the work straight to auction. After 10 years hidden behind a billboard, it was removed in February 2014 by the Sincura Group who were responsible for the removal of Banksy’s mural Slave Labour in North London a year before. It was shown at the exhibition, “Stealing Banksy?” and then sold.