Devolved Parliament
By Banksy, 2009
Imagine walking into the grand chamber of the British House of Commons and finding not a single human in sight. Every green leather bench is packed with chimpanzees, some slouching, some scratching, one wandering aimlessly across the floor. This is "Devolved Parliament" by Banksy, the elusive street artist whose identity remains a mystery to this day. Instead of his usual spray paint and city walls, he went big here with an oil painting stretching over four meters wide, done in the sober, dignified manner of an old master canvas. The clash between that serious tone and the apes goofing around is precisely the point.
The title is a neat bit of wordplay. Devolution normally means handing power down to local governments, but Banksy flips the idea to hint that Parliament has slid backward into something more primitive. The work debuted in 2009 and returned to view in Bristol in 2019, right when Brexit arguments were at their loudest and plenty of people felt the whole political process had turned into a farce. That coincidence gave it fresh bite, and it fetched close to 10 million pounds at auction that year, a record sum for the artist.
Its strength lies in how plainly it speaks. No background in politics is required to catch the joke, and the punchline arrives the moment you look at it. Some viewers call it razor sharp, others find it a little too on the nose, but either way it taps into a quiet frustration many share about the people running things.