Jack & Jill

Jack & Jill, also known as Police Kids, is a piece by Banksy which shows two children; a boy in a t-shirt and shorts with a young girl, pigtails in her hair, wearing a polka-dot dress and holding a basket of flowers. They run together in what seems to be an afternoon in the countryside, two carefree and innocent children playing in the summer holidays. However, of course there is a subversive twist - the two children are wearing bulletproof Police vests.

The blocked cornflower blue background gives the artwork that feeling of freedom, and yet the children are restricted by the bulky vests they wear; this could potentially be a comment on the way law enforcement is restricting our freedoms, or perhaps Banksy is suggesting our children require more protection. The police is one of Banksy’s favourite subjects of tongue-in-cheek critique and ridicule, such as in the print Donuts. He also often uses the motif of children to symbolise innocence, purity and hope to comment on serious issues of security, consumerism and violence, like in the works No Ball Games and Very Little Helps.