STEAM ROLLER TRAFFIC WARDEN

Caught in the Act

Banksy painted Steam Roller Traffic Warden directly onto the front roller of a road roller parked on a street in Lewisham, South London. The stencil depicts a uniformed traffic warden with both hands raised in alarm, his body disappearing precisely behind the bottom edge of the roller.

The placement transforms the construction vehicle into the second half of the composition. Viewed from the front, the unfortunate warden appears to be caught beneath the enormous steel drum and moments away from being flattened by it.

The Street Completes the Joke

Unlike a conventional mural, Steam Roller Traffic Warden depends entirely upon the object on which it was painted. Banksy uses the shape, scale and implied movement of the machinery to turn a simple stencil into a three-dimensional visual gag.

The choice of victim adds another layer of characteristically British humor. Traffic wardens, everyday representatives of municipal authority and parking enforcement, had long provided an easy target for public frustration. Here the balance of power is abruptly reversed: the official responsible for policing the street finds himself overwhelmed by the machinery occupying it.

Temporary, site-specific and wonderfully economical, Steam Roller Traffic Warden is a particularly effective example of Banksy's ability to see an ordinary piece of urban infrastructure not merely as a surface to paint upon, but as an active part of the artwork itself.