Check out a new graffiti probably painted by Banksy on the facade of the prison

Is Banksy the creator of the new graffiti that has popped up on the outside wall of Reading prison in the UK?

The work shows a man dressed in a prison uniform, fleeing the building by lowering himself with a knotted rope. One particular is surprising: the rope is made of paper and comes out of a typewriter.

It is hypothesized that the subject is inspired by the writer Oscar Wilde, imprisoned between 1895 and 1897 on charges of being homosexual. Homosexuality was in fact considered a crime at the time. Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labor, which he mostly served in Reading prison.

After his release from prison, Wilde wrote the poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," about a hanging while serving his sentence.

The building that houses the new graffiti is also the protagonist of a recent petition, created to redevelop the structure and make it a place of public interest. Indeed, the British Ministry of Justice is looking for buyers, but many are asking that the former prison be transformed into a cultural center.

This work could therefore be a claim, a metaphor for art that rebels and frees itself from castrating logics. Furthermore, it is culture that allows the human being to escape from mental schemes and cages: the typewriter, symbol of writing, allows the prisoner to escape from prison.

Banksy has yet to claim the authorship of the work. The Independent contacted his office for comment.