Towering at seven meters in height, Banksy’s monumental Forgive Us Our Trespassing from 2011 is the largest known piece by the anonymous street artist, evincing a powerfully resplendent vision at once unabashedly brazen and deeply poignant. While the widely recognizable image of the kneeling boy, accompanied by the title Forgive Us Our Trespassing, first appeared in 2010, the present 7-meter work was created in 2011 with the participation of over 100 6th to 9th grade students at the City of Angels School in a project aimed to encourage children to create art. With students assisting in tagging the stained glass windows, the present work goes to the very heart of the spirit of street art and graffiti. The imagery itself, on the other hand, is a potent and moving revelation of Banksy’s conflicted feelings about being a graffiti artist, speaking to deep preoccupations and pathos that underscore his artistic production. Trespassing is an act and word that underlies the very modus operandi of graffiti and street art, as street artists must trespass on private property in order to tag or paint a wall or surface. By asking for forgiveness, Banksy acknowledges the concerns of those who see his work as vandalism, but seems to convey that he ultimately means well, asking for understanding. Searing with raw immediacy while evincing rich layers of interpretations, Forgive Us Our Trespassing is a formidable, museum-caliber piece by the internationally acclaimed artist whose subversive practice has granted him a reputation of infamy as much as world renown.

Born and bred in Bristol, Banksy has achieved a now legendary status that teeters between acclaim and notoriety for his distinctive style of satirical street art and graffiti. His work is rich in dark humour and frequently captioned with subversive epigrams that provide pejorative commentaries on socio-political aspects of contemporary life. Seeking to disturb and disrupt the status-quo through his interrogative and anti-establishmentarian practice, Banksy has epitomised his own mission with the adage: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” – a modern day take on the turn-of-the-century American satirist Finley Peter Dunne’s declaration that the duty of a newspaper is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” (Finley Peter Dunne cited in: Dean P. Turnbloom, Ed., Prizewinning Political Cartoons: 2010 Edition, Gretna 2010, p. 146). Throughout his career Banksy’s art has been frequently dismissed as crass or glib; yet in spite of this, his work can be seen to fit into a rich and venerable history of political parody. From the British pictorial satirists of the Eighteenth Century, including Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and, of course, the great William Hogarth, through to the allegorical writings of George Orwell whose revolutionary novel Animal Farm similarly utilised zoological symbolism to critique modern society, and on to the political cartoonists of the present day, Banksy’s finest work is situated within an esteemed tradition of raising an unforgiving and illuminating mirror up to the world.

First appearing in 2010, the image in Forgive Us Our Trespassing sets aside Banksy’s usual biting satire and derision, revealing instead subtler, more nuanced sent.mes nts. The iconic image of the praying boy kneeling beside a can of paint and a brush first appeared on a wall in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2010, the image was distributed in the form of posters; this t.mes , a halo adorns the boy’s head. The posters were used to promote the artist’s fake documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop, which challenges the core of visual culture by questioning notions of authenticity and originality in a postmodernist society. In March 2010, when the image was featured on a London Bridge Station poster, Transport for London censored the halo dripping with paint for fear that the image would incite other graffiti artists; within days, however, the halo reappeared, tagged by an unidentified artist. In the present version of the image, the boy dons a hoodie, and the halo is replaced by a dazzling, gloriously graffitied stained-glass window. The setting of a sacred church functions on the one hand to heighten the ambiguous sent.mes nts of contrition and repentance; on the other hand, the sacrilegious blasphemy of defacing the hallowed windows of a church paints an incredibly powerful stat.mes nt that epitomizes Banksy’s cheeky, anarchic irreverence and rebellious spirit. A smaller version is on display at the Moco Museum Amsterdam, whereas the present work, towering at 7 metres high and incorporating the graffiti work of Los Angeles students, is the only larger-than-life work that incorporates literally the very essence of street art – its continuous process of mutual comments, reinterpretations, and reworkings, with the latest contributor holding the greatest control over meaning.

班克斯《寬恕我們的罪過》作於2011年，作品高達七米，自地面巍然聳立、壯觀宏偉，是這位匿名街頭藝術家目前已知最大型的作品。這幅獨一無二的作品驟眼看來艷麗堂皇，實則藏著創作者的狂放不羈和冷嘲熱諷。雙膝跪地的男孩形象是班克斯的著名創作，2010年首次面世，題為《寬恕我們的罪過》，而這幅同名的七米鉅作繪於2011年，有洛杉磯學生群體參與創作，為彩繪玻璃窗塗上簽名（tag）。這幅作品反映街頭藝術與塗鴉的核心精神——在街頭文化中，匿名藝術家會藉由僭越或覆蓋競爭對手作品的方式佔領及保衛其「領土」。另一邊廂，作品的圖像本身是一記動人的深刻啟示，體現了班克斯對自己的塗鴉藝術家身份的複雜情感，回溯其創作的初心、即對社會現象的深切思考和悲憫。由於街頭藝術家必須「入侵」他人的私人土地，才能在牆壁或平面上畫圖、簽名，因此「入侵」（Trespassing）一詞既指行為，亦指塗鴉與街頭藝術的基本創作模式。班克斯藉著請求他人的原諒，回應人們視其創作為蓄意破壞的指控，因此這幅作品看似是藝術家釋出善意、尋求諒解的舉動。班克斯以顛覆常規、出人意表的塗鴉創作獨步藝壇，關於他的爭議與褒評可謂不相伯仲。這幅《寬恕我們的罪過》蘊涵多重詮釋空間，是博物館級的班克斯鉅作，如今上拍，為藏家帶來不可多得的購藏機會。

班克斯出身於英國布里斯托，喜創作挖苦諷刺現實的街頭藝術和塗鴉，聲名毀譽參半，但仍堪稱當代藝術界傳奇。他的作品充滿黑色幽默，經常寫有顛覆叛逆的宣言，對現今社會政治提出批判。班克斯以尖銳的質問和反建制的態度，試圖干擾並破壞現狀，其使命一如他所言：「藝術應使受困擾者得安慰，令安逸者困惑不安」。此話套用了二十世紀初美國諷刺作家芬利・彼得・鄧恩的名言，他曾說新聞報刊的使命是「使受苦者得安慰，令安逸者受苦」（引述自芬利・彼得・鄧恩，載於迪恩・P・圖爾布洛姆編，《獲獎政治漫畫：2010年版》，格雷特納，2010年，146頁）。在班克斯的創作生涯中，他的藝術常被貶為粗俗或輕率。儘管如此，他的作品屬於歷史悠久的「政治諷刺」類別，同行者包括十八世紀以來的英國諷刺繪畫及漫畫作家，如托馬斯・羅蘭森、詹姆斯・吉里、偉大的威廉・霍加斯、以至喬治・奧威爾和當今的政治漫畫家；奧威爾的傳世名著《動物農莊》就以動物故事為寓言批判現代社會。班克斯的優秀作品秉承這個傳統，毫不留情地向世界高舉一面發人深省的鏡子。

《寬恕我們的罪過》初見於2010年，它與班克斯尖酸嘲諷的慣常作法截然不同，反之呈現較為含蓄而微妙的情感。這個跪在油漆罐與畫筆旁邊的祈禱男孩在猶他州鹽湖城的一幅牆上首度面世。當時這幅圖像印在一批海報上，男孩頭上更有光環。這些海報用於宣傳班克斯的偽紀錄片《畫廊外的天賦》，影片旨在向後現代社會對於真實與原創的概念提出疑問，挑戰視覺文化的核心理念。2010年3月，這個圖像出現在倫敦橋地鐵站的一張海報，男孩頭頂有一個噴漆滴落的光環。倫敦交通局擔心這圖像會引來其他塗鴉藝術家仿效，因此將光環塗掉。不過幾日後有匿名藝術家重新塗上了光環。今次上拍的版本，畫中男孩身穿連帽衫，頭頂沒有光環，取而代之的是明亮奪目的彩繪教堂玻璃花窗。作品以氣氛莊嚴的教堂為背景，一方面增添悔悟與懺悔的迷惘情感；另一方面神聖的教堂玻璃花窗遭塗鴉，這種褻瀆神明的舉動，充分反映班克斯肆無忌憚、反抗權威的叛逆態度。此作有一較小版本，曾在阿姆斯特丹莫科博物館展出。這幅七米鉅作融入了洛杉磯學生群體的塗鴉，呈現創作者之間互相評論、重新演繹和重新創作的持續過程；至於作品的意義則掌控於最後的創作者手上，可見本作糅合街頭藝術的精髓，是不可多得的非凡鉅製。