The figure of Death has come down through art history almost unchanged: a black hooded cloak, a scythe in hand, and a skull under the hood. Banksy leaves this figure exactly as it is, and simply replaces the skull with a yellow smiley face.

But the real point of the composition is where the figure is sitting. The reaper sits on a large clock face resembling Big Ben, and its hands stand at five minutes to midnight.

This detail takes the piece somewhere else entirely. Five minutes to midnight refers directly to the language of the Doomsday Clock, which since the Cold War has shown how close humanity is to destroying itself. So this is not only a scene about individual death. It is a countdown to a collective, self inflicted end. Choosing Big Ben ties this reading to a state, to an institution.

The smiley face sets the whole tone. Since the seventies the smiley has been the cheapest and most widely printed symbol of positivity, first on t-shirts, then in advertising, and today in emojis. Putting it on the face of Death depicts our habit of facing catastrophe with a smile, of packaging bad news into something acceptable.