On December 10, 2020, Banksy’s Aachoo!! appeared on the wall of a house on Vale Street in Bristol’s Totterdown neighborhood, standing out as a humorous intervention amidst the chaotic atmosphere of the pandemic. The artwork is situated on the side wall of a semi-detached house on Vale Street, one of England’s steepest residential streets.

Aachoo!! is a mural created with Banksy’s signature stencil technique. The piece depicts an elderly woman sneezing with a headscarf, her dentures flying into the air, her cane and bag dropping as she does so. The woman’s sneeze, combined with the street’s steep incline, creates an illusion as if it’s generating a force capable of toppling the houses above. This showcases Banksy’s mastery in incorporating the environment into his art; Vale Street’s 22-degree slope is used as an element that enhances the visual impact of the piece. By exaggerating an elderly woman’s sneeze, Banksy captures both the humorous and tragic aspects of the pandemic period simultaneously. The work’s humorous tone reflects Banksy’s effort to lighten the serious atmosphere of the pandemic while carrying a deeper, serious message beneath the surface.

The elderly woman’s maskless sneeze ironically draws attention to the risk of the virus spreading; despite having a handkerchief in her hand, her failure to use it may symbolize individuals’ indifference to pandemic rules. The exaggerated effect of the sneeze dentures flying, a trash can toppling, an umbrella turning inside out, might represent the uncontrollable nature of the pandemic and its sudden, devastating impact on society. Through this piece, Banksy emphasizes that the pandemic is not just a health crisis but also reveals societal habits and negligence.

The woman’s sneeze might also critique the superficiality of consumer society and the fragility beneath it. During the pandemic, when the elderly were particularly vulnerable to the virus, her sneeze implies society’s failure to protect these vulnerable groups. The dentures flying into the air could symbolize aging and fragility, possibly carrying a critique of society’s inadequate care for the elderly during the pandemic. Banksy invites viewers to question the social negligence behind a global crisis like the pandemic and the false sense of security in consumer society.

Aachoo!! emerged at the end of 2020, during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. While strict lockdown measures were in place in England, people were facing both health and economic challenges. Banksy’s piece in Bristol, a city thought to be his hometown, also garners attention for this reason.

The pandemic period made the themes of social critique often explored in Banksy’s art even more prominent. Throughout 2020, Banksy created several pandemic-related works: for instance, in October 2020, a mural in Nottingham depicted a girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tire, and in July 2020, a graffiti in the London Underground titled If You Don’t Mask, You Don’t Get featured sneezing rats and rats wearing masks. The emergence of the piece led the homeowner, Aileen Makin, to abandon plans to sell the house; experts estimated that the artwork could increase the property’s value from 300,000 pounds to as much as 5 million pounds. However, in March 2021, the piece was removed from the house’s wall and put up for auction.

Aachoo!! stands out as one of Banksy’s most striking works, both artistically and critically, addressing societal issues during the pandemic.