Valentine’s Day Mascara
Location: Kent, England
Date: 14 February 2023
This mural appeared on the side of a house on Park Place, to the rear of Grosvenor Place in Margate. It depicts an injured woman with a missing tooth and ‘swollen eye’ dressed as a housewife from the 1950s shutting a man in a freezer.
The mural has been confirmed to be a genuine Banksy via his Instagram (as of Tuesday 14th February). Titled ‘Valentine’s Day Mascara’, the artwork shows the housewife with a black eye swollen shut and a missing tooth, who has seemingly pushed her male partner into a chest freezer.. The work incorporates a refrigerator that had been abandoned in the street next to the house.
The mural suggests a staunch commentary on domestic violence against women on Valentine’s Day. Banksy has addressed violence against marginalised communities in previous artworks and is not one to shy away from political, social, and cultural themes.
