PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland

ILLUSTRATED Wall and Piece, Banksy, (Vintage Publishing United Kingdom, 2005)

NOTES Accompanied by certificate of authenticity from Pest Control, signed & dated 28/10/08

Active since the 1990s Banksy's satirical street art combines perceptive social commentary with a degree of dark humor. The viewer is often simultaneously challenged and amused by the unexpected appearance of Banksy's distinctive, finely stencilled graffiti on walls, streets and bridges.

Love Is In The Air, also known as Flower Thrower first appeared in 2003 as large format, stencilled graffiti in Jerusalem shortly after the construction of the West Bank Wall. It was graffitied on the wall separating Palestine from Israel. The wall rapidly became a giant canvas for paintings and writings protesting against its construction. Banksy returned to the region in 2005 to paint a series of nine provocative works supporting freedom and equality.

In 2015 he contributed again, painting four new pieces amongst the ruins of a bombed city with the intention of highlighting the plight of those living in the Gaza Strip. In Banksy's iconic and characteristic signature stencilled style, Love Is In The Air depicts a protestor wearing a baseball cap and a bandana to mask the lower half of his face. The artist adds an inevitable twist, placing a bunch of flowers into the thrower's hand instead of a molotov cocktail or grenade. Despite what appears to be anger and frustration in the subjects pose, he prepares to launch a universal symbol of love and peace as opposed to a weapon. Love Is In The Air is one of Banksy's most iconic and sought after works. It has been reproduced on posters, phone covers, T-shirts and other merchandise all over the world. The image also features across the cover of the 2005 publication Wall and Piece, Banksy. Although completed in 2003, this image with it's masked subject possesses a powerful relevance.