Chimpanzees (as MPs) Symbolism

Stand-ins for human politicians; a satirical device equating parliamentary behavior with primal instincts and spectacle.

Common Themes

Flora & faunaPropaganda & ideologyResistance & protestMedium reflexivity (art about art)Originality, authorship, and appropriationPower & authorityNationalism & patriotism

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

Devolved Parliament by Banksy

Devolved Parliament

Banksy (2009 (reworked and retitled by 2019))

<strong>Devolved Parliament</strong> is Banksy’s monumental oil painting that replaces Members of Parliament with chimpanzees on the green benches of the House of Commons. Using theatrical light that pools around the dispatch boxes and the Speaker’s Chair, it stages British democracy as a spectacle where ceremony collides with <strong>animalistic pandemonium</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.