Banksy is an England-based graffiti artist of unidentified identity. Banksy is known for his political activism using satirical street art to combine dark humor with graffiti executed in distinctive stenciling techniques to express his various messages. The image shows a small child hunched over holding a balloon that is the “O” in “NO FUTURE” written in a child’s handwriting. By looking at the color and design of the image we see the condemnation of society on the homeless or less fortunate and the hopelessness of the children in these environments to succeed. This is important because society should be helping the homeless and less fortunate rather than condemning them to a life with “no future”. 

The entire image is in black with a dirty “white” wall as the background with red lettering that also makes up the balloon that the child is holding. The stenciled image of the little boy is in black with white to fill in the negative space for the highlights of his face. Black can be a color of darkness, mourning, anger and even death sometimes. The child in the image is crouched in an inferior position, body turned away from whatever the child is facing, like the child is bracing himself from something. His body position and hair is blown back like a child would facing into the wind, or in this case, possible stares or ridicule of outer introspection. The child is dark and crouched, mourning and angry like the color black, the color the image of a child is made up of, a great significance in the tone of the image to be perceived by the viewer as a strong meaning. 

  The white of the wall that creates the negative space of the boy can mean light, innocence and clean. But the white of the wall is dingy and dirty, stained with past graffiti and environmental damages. The greater significance of why Banksy may have chosen the background for his piece is because how normally white signifies innocence, this background is dingy and uncared for, much like the homeless children and the children who don’t have enough money for clean clothes that fit. 

The red words and red of the “balloon” that forms the O for NO FUTURE spelled out above the crouched child is bold and the biggest image in the design Banksy painted. “NO FUTURE” is the brightest and largest thing in the piece, the first thing the eye goes to. Red can typically signify anger and intensity, just like the image and the point Banksy has to make to his audience and his anger, and possibly the child’s anger of how society, or an accusation that the viewers in general, are condemning children like the one in the image to having no future or no hope. 

The design of the image appeals to the emotional side of a person with a small, young, crouching child holding a large balloon that creates the “O” in the “NO FUTURE” floating above the child’s head, like one would imagine a burden floating above someone like a dark cloud, not the sunny disposition of a balloon and happiness a child should be carrying above oneself. The words above the child are written in a child’s scrawl, with bold, sloppy handwriting that shows adolescence and innocence much unlike the words and the meaning behind them. 

Behind the words “NO FUTURE” is the faint gray spray paint of the number five with dripping paint, but the number five must have some form of significance for the image because Banksy had the choice to cover up the graffiti like he did for all the old graffiti, leaving faint traces, but instead you can clearly see the darker symbol behind the “NO” that resembles the number five. The number five could be a significance due to the fact the boy in the image looks young enough to be five, and the “NO” is stamped over the number, the “O” also being a balloon. Balloons are symbols of freedom, floating into the sky off to oblivion. Balloons symbolize youth because in a child’s mind they can do anything, the idea of flying still occurs in their dreams, but to this child, he is holding a balloon that spells out his restrictions, he isn’t free and isn’t given the hope and innocence and idea of being able to fly like a normal child. 

Unlike a normal five year old, or young child since his age isn’t truly determinable in the image this child is wearing a shirt with ragged sleeves from overuse and cut off pants that look like he’s out grown them and long hair blowing behind him from lack of a haircut. In the image the child has no shoes or any feet for that matter, covered by the dirt at the bottom of the wall the child is sitting crouched on. The facial expression of the child isn’t light and happy, but somber and concentrated on something over his shoulder. His facial expression looks hurt and discouraged, hopeless and let down by whatever he is gazing at, whatever he is bracing his body away from in the image. With his arms on his knees and his torso crouched around his vital organs, it is a defensive position as if he is protecting himself from something, or bracing himself, much like a child on the streets would. 

Banksy’s image is important because it symbolizes how society looks at a child living in poverty or on the streets and sees another statistic with “NO FUTURE” spelled out above them, hanging above the child like a bad label. Using Banksy’s use of the colors of red, black and white, the image symbolizes the condemnation of society on the impoverished. Both red and black symbolizing anger, black symbolizing mourning and darkness, the red symbolizing intensity, and the white symbolizing innocence, or what was supposed to be innocence. The design of the image with the boy crouched and facing away with the giant words written in a child’s hands hanging above the child with a balloon creating the “O” in the “NO” being held in the child’s hands. The design of the image shows the resignation of the child and hopelessness of a situation that shouldn’t be hopeless and a child who shouldn’t be resigned at such a young age. 
