“I wanted to highlight the state of the clean-up operation. Only later did it dawn on me that if you choose to do this by drawing all over their stuff, you’re actually only slowing down that clean-up operation.”

One of the works he created was a stenciled rendering of former U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln. Spray-painted onto the wall of a damaged building at a major intersection, the site has since been demolished to make way for a healthcare facility.

Using the same stencil he would then employ for the three Abe Lincoln works on cardboard, including the present composition, Banksy’s site-specific version portrayed Lincoln as displaced person living on the streets, pushing a trolley full of possessions. Lincoln was the great figurehead of the emancipation movement which liberated the slaves of the Southern Sates, and in depicting Lincoln in a such a poorly advantaged position, Banksy showcases his sharp sense of satire in highlighting the shortcomings of Lincoln’s political descendants.