Banksy – CCTV :: http://www.banksy.co.uk

Review of CCTV

Summary

In CCTV, the poet pivots from the inner landscape of spiritual transformation to the outer world of digital observation, exposing the claustrophobia of modern surveillance culture. The piece fuses socio-political critique with poetic flair, painting a chilling portrait of a society where privacy is obsolete and freedom is an illusion.

With its rhythmic urgency and sharp, cinematic imagery, the poem moves like a visual montage: “Telephoto, panoramic, satellite, GPS/IP / Digitally enhanced virtual spies.” Each phrase lands like a flicker of a security feed, the poetic form mirroring the fragmentation and hyper-awareness of a world constantly watched.

Why This Poem Matters

At the heart of this poem lies a profound tension between the metaphysical desire for liberation and the material mechanisms of control. The opening line —

“You want to be free / But there’s no way of knowing / In which direction / To keep on going”

— immediately establishes a sense of disorientation. Freedom itself becomes abstract, elusive, unattainable, as the poem spirals into a dystopian observation of digital omnipresence.

The image of the “Judas hawk-eye” is particularly powerful. It fuses Biblical betrayal with predatory vision — technology as both omniscient and faithless. The “hawk-eye” becomes the false god of the modern age, a synthetic substitute for divine omniscience.

The poem’s momentum builds toward the chilling final stanza:

“An ever-expanding automated army
Of brothers-in-the-sky
Strategically mounted
Perfectly positioned
To purposefully pry
Like flies”

Here, the poet captures the grotesque beauty of surveillance — the mechanical precision, the soulless curiosity. The alliteration (“purposefully pry / Like flies”) evokes both the clinical coldness of machines and the parasitic voyeurism of human fascination. The poem closes with dark irony: “Candy camera smile.” A phrase that suggests complicity — we are both performer and prisoner, smiling for our own captors.

In Conclusion

CCTV stands as one of the most striking socio-political poems in the collection. Beneath its critique of digital control lies a deeper existential question — what becomes of the soul when even our inner world is mapped, measured, and monitored?

Through sharp linguistic economy and potent imagery, the poet captures the paranoia of the surveillance age, yet also the longing for transcendence beyond it. The “brothers-in-the-sky” are both satellites and fallen angels — the watchers who remind us that freedom must now be reclaimed from within.

This poem is a wake-up call delivered through artistry: vivid, unsettling, and profoundly human.

Featured in a site specific project about surveillance on the London Eye: CCTV video poem: https://youtu.be/u81BN0YKV8I

Full piece: https://youtu.be/ytxvxUYvtvg