Banksy’s Napalm Girl has been created by using a pre-existing image from Vietnam in 1972. The original image seen below displays a girl named Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing from a Napalm attack on her village.The original photograph was taken by Press photographer Nick Ut titled “The Terror of War” which was taken on the 8th of June 1972 during the Vietnam War.
Nick Ut’s famous photograph shown above, depicts the tragedy and faces of collateral damage in war which normally goes unseen. It was taken after South Vietnamese Air Force dropped Napalm on the village of Trang Brang by mistake. Kim Phuc’s clothes had been burned off by Napalm and she had to be taken to hospital with third degree burns that covered 30 percent of her body.Ut with the help of his colleagues managed to get Kim Phuc transferred to an American facility to save her life.
388,000 tons of napalm was dropped in Vietnam during 1963 -1973 period.A 2,500-square-yard area could be immersed in flame by a single napalm bomb. Although, dropping it from high-speed aircraft’s wasn’t accurate. This meant that a large number of innocent civilians suffered serious harm. As we can see from Nick Ut’s image. Napalm Girl became a symbol for the brutality if the Vietnam War. Unlike the wars before it where the effects of Napalm were censored to the public . It was exposed hugely by Vietnam. Thousands of images surrounding this devastation were circulated in the media. Napalm Girl in particular forced publications to override their policies concerning Nudity .In 1973 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the World Press Photo of the Year. . And, within the same year, American stopped its involvement in the Vietnam war. Napalm Girl displayed that the conflict of war was doing much more harm than good. Becoming an iconic symbol for peace.
Taking this image in 2004 Banksy placed Kim Phuc in the centre of the image with Mickey Mouse on one side and Ronald McDonald on the other . Two icons of American Capitalism holding a terrified girls hands. The fear and struggle of survival juxtaposed with these two smiling characters, ignorant to her feelings , creates an extremely disturbing atmosphere.
The characters appear to be either leading her to her death with sinister smiles. Could this be an attack on America’s obsession with power and money. Even at the demise of innocent children like Kim Phuc it appears that nothing will stop them from their goal. This is so perfectly structured through the consumerist idols of Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald whose target audience is children.Banksy exposes Americas treatment of their own children, in contrast to their treatment to children affected by wars they cannot escape from.
Bibliography
AP images. (n.d.). PHOTOGRAPHER NICK UT: THE NAPALM GIRL. Retrieved from AP images: http://www.apimages.com/Collection/Landing/Photographer-Nick-Ut-The-Napalm-Girl-/ebfc0a860aa946ba9e77eb786d46207e
Banksy British Graffiti Artist, Political Activist, and Film Director. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Art Story: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-banksy-artworks.htm
Napalm Banksy. (n.d.). Retrieved from My art broker: https://www.myartbroker.com/artist/banksy/napalm/
Rohn, A. (2014, January 18). The Vietnam War. Retrieved from Napalm in Vietnam War: https://thevietnamwar.info/napalm-vietnam-war/
Stockton, R. (2017, June 6th). The True Story Behind “Napalm Girl”. Retrieved from All thats interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/napalm-girl
Time Photo. (2016, September 9th). The Story Behind the ‘Napalm Girl’ Photo Censored by Facebook.Retrieved from TIME: http://time.com/4485344/napalm-girl-war-photo-facebook/
Tara Burrowes: SAB935 CREATIVE DISSENT 