TV Girl, 2003

September 2003 saw the launch of the Observer Music Monthly magazine with Blur scheduled to appear on the front cover. Following the success of their Think Tank album, the band were keen to commission Banksy again and approached him to design the backdrop for their photoshoot. The interview and shoot were arranged but were beset with problems from the start.

To quote the Observer, “A date was set for the afternoon of the group’s headlining performance at the Leeds Festival but that almost fell through as two days before the shoot Banksy went AWOL. It later transpired that he had been arrested in Berlin for defacing a building.” Once he had arrived the festival’s rural setting provided further problems- there were no obvious structures for Banksy to use as a blank canvas for his works. The issue was resolved by a neighboring farmer who was happy to grant permission for the artist to work on his property. Banksy produced three works, one, depicting a TV launched through a broken window, was used on the magazine cover with the band appearing below. It was painted on a brick wall. The second image, also a TV, and the present work were painted on the doors of the adjoining duck shed. When the duck shed was recently renovated the owner’s salvaged part of the doors onto which the present work was created.