Kyiv, Velyka Zhytomyrska 13 2022

This mural by Banksy, probably made with stencils and spray paint, shows figures teetering on a military truck. And above them, this burst of glowing white light, or some kind of missile? I wonder if Banksy felt some kind of kinship with those workers while he was making this. I'm thinking about the physical struggle of working on a wall like that—the wind, the cold, the fear of getting caught. The gray background of the wall gives it a somber, war-like feeling. The truck looms large, heavy with implied movement. I can almost hear the roar of its engine. That burst of white—what is it? The line is so pure and simple, like a child's drawing. Is it about the kind of destruction that cancels everything out? Making art sometimes feels like balancing on the edge of something, and Banksy's kind of art always feels like an intervention. He makes it so we can't look away.