Theme of Syrian Refugee Crisis in Banksy’s The Son of a Migrant from Syria

My contemporary art that I going to talk is “The Son of a Migrant from Syria” a famous mural painted by Banksy in 2015. Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, vandal, political activist, and film director. He has been active since the 1990s. Banksy usually draws his mural themed about the anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment. This mural was located in an encampment near Calais, France nicknamed called by Calais Jungle. The encampment is the place who the migrants lived and wanted to enter the United Kingdom. This artwork portrays Steve Jobs-Apple co-founder and former CEO, who is a son of a Syrian travelling migrant to the United States. The theme of this art is voicing social injustice. The three main points about voicing social injustice are discrimination, determination and refugee crisis.

The first main point of this mural is discrimination. This art shows that Steve Jobs is carrying a bag and some important stuff to be a migrant. Banksy wanted use this mural to spread and voice out social injustices. He made this mural at the public area because he wanted other people to know the message behind this art. Why this mural is about discrimination? It is because Banksy immigrate to United States and the people of United States are giving a lot of troubles to him. For example, many people think that refugees are bad then they discriminate him because he is a refugee. From this incident, all refugees will lose their trust then they also lose their job. Their children also have trouble when they educate in United States. Therefore, Banksy used Steve Jobs as a representation of Syrian migrants in this mural. It is because Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Steve Jobs’ father was a political migrant from the Syria. However, Banksy once made a rare public statement and he said “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources. Thus, Banksy wanted to tell people all around the world cannot have prejudice with refugee.

Next, the second main point of this art is determination. Determination means that when you do something you will not give up when you face some trouble situation. Therefore, Banksy represents this mural with Steve Jobs’ face because Steve Jobs is a determined person and he does not give up when he was prejudiced of the people United States. In the mural, Steve Jobs is carrying a bag of belongings over his left shoulder in a hunched position. This is what an image how a migrant will look like; migrants usually carrying some important things that needed in their life and some valuable stuff. Migrants also walk with their face facing down. However, in this mural Banksy represents Steve Jobs’ face is facing up and have confident. This show that Steve Jobs has successful in his job even though he is migrant of Syrian. On the other hand, the computer that Steve Jobs is carrying is the first product that Steve Jobs successfully produced. The artist wanted to tell us the success is always in our hand. Although you are in a tough situation, you also can success it. Just like Steve Jobs is a son of migrant from Syrian, he also can solve the problem to make his way to be successfully.

Besides that, the last main point in this mural is refugee crisis. In the mural, there is some pipe holes on the wall and I believe that is some gunshot due to the Syria civil war. Why this mural will talk about refugee crisis? It is because from 2011 until now the refugee crisis still increasing and there are many people also died in the Syrian civil war. Therefore, Banksy draw this mural out to voicing social injustice in 2015. In this civil war there are many innocent people sacrificed. In these innocent people there will maybe have dream wanted to do but they can’t achieve it. Thus, many people from Syria immigrant to other country that have accept refugee. Although you are a refugee you also can be a successful person in the world. For example, Banksy represents Steve Jobs in this mural because he wanted to tell migrant or refugee also can successful in their life. On an interesting side note, there is two word ‘FREE SYRIA’ painted on the wall. I think the artist wanted to tell Syria country to stop the war and let their people stay in a happy and comfortable condition.

In conclusion, I think this mural art is very important to every people all around the world. It is because it carries on hundred or even thousand messages on how ruined our societies and people are. Other people maybe only see the small and a few information of this art but I had noticed a deeper and hidden meaning on this art by myself. I had learned many things from this art such as when we are facing troubles, we do not give up. We must trust ourselves and always have the motivation to do better and achievable result to show all the people of the world, just like Steve Jobs did. I choose this piece of art because I want to show people that painting also can bring forth a better society like Banksy did anonymously. It is also a reason that why Banksy did all these to help the society but not for the money. This mural related to me; we must accept others then we can do better and successfully in our life. I hope that every people will accept others even though they are different races and genders.