PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Walton Fine Arts, Chelsea, 2012 - original purchase receipt available to buyer

This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control

Banksy's Choose Your Weapon first appeared on a wall outside London's Grange pub, Bermondsey in 2010. Shortly after the stencil appeared on the street, it was boarded over. It then reappeared, framed and covered in perspex. In August 2016, it was reported that the perspex itself had been covered in posters and advertising flyers obscuring it from view entirely.

In December 2010 Pictures On Walls released limited edition prints of the mural to a multitude of fans who queued for hours in the cold to get their hands on a work by Banksy. The queue notoriously got out of control, with desperate fans pushing and shoving, which resulted in Banksy releasing a special queue jumping edition in grey for those who missed their chance.

The collection of prints were available in fifteen different colours - all editions of 25. Choose Your Weapon - Soft Yellow features a hooded man with dark clothing and a bandana hiding his face, a visual motif recurrent in Banksy's stencil work and meant to signifying Britain's disaffected youth. His menacing appearance is contrasted by his casual hand in the pocket posture and his cartoon Haring dog, chained and barking.

Here Banksy implies the dog has become an alternative weapon on the UK streets.

The minimalist animal, painted in a hieroglyphic all-white silhouette, is in contrast to the hyper- realistic representation of his master and the style is a clear nod to the late Keith Haring (1958- 90) whose Barking Dog is one of the most recognised motifs of contemporary art in the 1980s.

This represents an opportunity to acquire a signed Banksy from an edition of 25. The lowest commercial edition ever published by the artist.