5. Soldiers Painting Peace – Banksy, 2007
Banksy’s stencilled anti-war piece, Soldiers Painting Peace, became prominent after it was displayed in a collection at the Tate Britain gallery in London in 2007. The collection was a recreation of the Bristol street artist’s ‘artistic display’ outside of the Houses of Parliament, which was confiscated for supposedly violating a law against unauthorised protest within a certain distance of the building. In this painting two soldiers dressed in battle gear warily look around as they conspire to paint a peace sign on a wall. One is crouching down and holding a machine gun, while the other is holding a brush that has been dipped into a can of red paint and is working on completing the sign.