This piece of art was created by the artist Banksy. Banksy’s work is known for being satirical and anti establishment. He doesn’t want you to just look at the art he’s created but also include history, location, and surroundings in the context of his art. This piece is an image of a kid praying on his knees with the words forgive us our trespassing written on the wall. Discourses in place describes transgressive semiotics by something transgressively written on stones and walls in public places against the expectation or in violation of public expectation that such surfaces would be kept clean and ‘unpolluted’.
After doing some research on this piece I found that this piece was done in Salt Lake City, Utah around the time of the Sundance Music festival. This being the case I made the connection that the majority of Utah is Mormon and that the phrase Banksy has chosen is from The Lord’s prayer, which is in Christianity. In addition to that, the boy on his knees with his palms together confirms that “forgive us our trespassing” is a religious reference. Since the Mormon’s do not say this prayer, it becomes transgressive art in that space. The location of the graffiti also appears to be at a construction sign ironically with a no parking sign right next to it. I found this quite comical since it’s a construction site he is literally trespassing. I also felt that since it was during the Sundance Festival forgive us our trespassing is relevant because of thousands of people visiting.
I also noticed that there was another picture on the Banksy website where the same child praying had a halo and wings. It looked like the same wall but I wonder if the context of that picture would give us any information about this one.
