CNN, 2017

Catalogue Note

Created for the Walled Off Hotel in 2017, CNN is one of Banksy’s most incisive reflections on the relationship between war and the media. The work depicts an elderly Palestinian woman standing amid piles of rubble, her body bent with exhaustion and grief. Rather than presenting the image directly, however, Banksy places it behind the fractured screen of a television broadcasting a rolling Breaking News bulletin. The shattered glass immediately reminds the viewer that we are not witnessing the tragedy itself, but its mediated representation.

Banksy has long questioned the way contemporary conflicts are consumed through television and social media. Endless cycles of breaking news risk transforming human suffering into spectacle, reducing individual lives to fleeting headlines that disappear almost as quickly as they appear. The scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen mimics the familiar language of financial markets and twenty-four-hour news channels, where war, politics, entertainment and stock prices compete equally for our attention.

The elderly woman occupies the emotional centre of the composition. She is anonymous, ordinary, and therefore universal. Banksy deliberately avoids depicting soldiers or political leaders, choosing instead to focus on those who inevitably bear the greatest burden of conflict: civilians whose homes, memories and communities are reduced to rubble. Her isolation becomes a powerful reminder that behind every headline lies a human story.

Displayed within the Walled Off Hotel, the work acquires particular significance. Visitors are encouraged not merely to observe the conflict from a comfortable distance, but to confront the uncomfortable reality that separates witnessing from understanding. The broken television screen becomes a metaphor for Banksy’s broader ambition: to crack the protective glass through which the outside world often views Palestine.

Like many works in the hotel, CNN is ultimately less about assigning blame than questioning perception. Banksy asks whether modern media truly brings us closer to distant tragedies or whether its constant stream of images gradually desensitizes us. In an age saturated with information, CNN quietly reminds us that compassion begins not with watching the news, but with refusing to let suffering become ordinary.