Choose Your Weapon is a portrait of British youth deprived of ideals and prospects, and of gang culture, in which aggressive dogs are used to assert dominance in neighbourhoods. There are some contradictory elements at play here: on the one hand, the menacing appearance of the hooded youth contrasts with his relaxed posture; on the other, his ferocious dog resembles a stylised cartoon character. The unidentifiable figure bears a striking resemblance to how Banksy is often depicted. The minimalist dog is rendered in a flat, hieroglyphic style with a thick black outline and a solid white centre. These figures first appeared on the wall of a pub in Bermondsey, south London, in 2010. Banksy’s barking dog clearly pays homage to Keith Haring’s famous icon from the 1980s. One of the New York street artist’s most universally recognised symbols is precisely the dog with its mouth open, rendered in countless colour variations. Banksy appropriates this symbol to spread his message. The playful simplicity with which the dog is depicted may allude to how young people are often demonised and misrepresented as threatening. The title, Choose Your Weapon, suggests that the visual language of graffiti is a powerful weapon in the fight against oppression. Here, Banksy declares that art is his weapon in the struggle for peace and democratic freedom, and invites the viewer to choose their own.
The dog is often used in street artists’ iconography as an independent character, sometimes depicted standing upright with human features; it represents authoritarian government, the abuse of power and, generally, oppressive regimes. In Keith Haring’s work, dogs are almost always anthropomorphic. Some have been depicted dancing, laughing or acting as DJs. Portrayed in a myriad of everyday activities, they take on the role of the artist’s alter ego.
