Umbrella Girl

This striking image of a girl being drenched by rain from inside of her umbrella is in reference to the devastating event of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which have been amplified by failure of the flood defenses that had been designed to protect the citizens from such a disaster. Naturally, an umbrella is designed to keep the individual using it dry and protected from the elements.

 The fact that the rain is falling not from the sky but instead from the inside of the umbrella is Banksy‘s way of suggesting to the viewer that very things (or institutions) that were created and designed to protect us can, at times, do quite the opposite – a scathing indictment of FEMA and the government’s response to protect and help the people directly affected by Hurricane Katrina.