Submerged Phone Booth, 2006
Metal, Acrylic, glass
121.9 x 182.9 x 152.4 cm (47 7/8 x 72 x 60 inches)
Unique
Phillips London: 15 October 2014
GBP 722,500 / USD 1,152,864
Phillips London: 15 October 2014
GBP 722,500 / USD 1,152,864
Exhibited
Barely Legal, Los Angeles, 2006
Source: Phillips
Submerged Phone Booth, carried out in 2006, features a replica of the classically British Telecommunications phone booth. The booth in question is depicted as emerging from a cement pavement, fragmenting and splitting the surface in its endeavor. As integral to his oeuvre, in this piece Banksy questions contemporary society and events that otherwise remain overlooked or tactfully ignored.
Made available in the early 1900s, shortly after the success of the recently invented telephone, the telephone booth first appeared in London near railway stations. The boxes provided instant communication for travelers and city-dwellers, serving the needs of the masses. Phone booths once graced virtually every street corner, public office building and hotel, and became a part of the fabric of the culture. Phone booths are now seen as a symbol of London and British culture and serve more as a tourist-attraction for travelers than for any practical value. Yet the iconic constructions are beginning to disappear, falling subject to virtual and technological progression.
Submerged Phone Booth thus serves as a statement on the demise of what had once been an iconic presence in art, entertainment and society; renowned and quintessentially British, references ranging from Superman to The Beatles to Alfred Hitchcock, have strong associations with the object.
Depicted with only the upper half visible above ground level, the phone booth is not displayed in its full state. The effect created by the fragmented surrounding cement alludes to the sense of crashing movement, in particular the booth rising from underground. There is a sense of liberation and prevailing power given to the object in its ability to destroy and overcome the otherwise almost indestructible and unyielding quality of cement. The classical bright red color of the phone booth also succeeds in this endeavor through the comparison between its vivid, attractive qualities with those of the surrounding surface cement. The large scale of the piece adds to its impact and emphasizes its striking visual power. As integral to Banksy’s oeuvre, the artist manipulates a classic British trope in an innovative and inventive way to highlight a political and somewhat humorous message.
Submerged Phone Booth emphasizes the modern state of constant societal change: the uprooting and replacing of the old to forcibly make space for the new. Yet, in the paradox between its physical directness, scale and prominence and its conceptual subtlety, the installation encourages choice and the exploration of alternative. Banksy encourages society to question its collective actions and behaviors instead of excusing situations as uncontrollable and out of reach of the individual. The artist manages to include a subtlety of statement in his renowned and notorious works that creates a delicate, inimitable beauty in its proclamation. Submerged Phone Booth is dramatic, provocative and stimulating, yet retains a sense of the indecisive that renders it particularly poignant and affecting.
