Valentine's day mascara

Valentine's day mascara is an 2023 artwork by Banksy that appeared on the side of a house in Margate, Kent, on 14 February, Valentine's Day, 2023. The work depicts a woman shutting a man in a refrigerator.

Description
The piece is painted on the side of a house on Park Place, to the rear of Grosvenor Place in Margate. It depicts an injured woman with a missing tooth and 'swollen eye' dressed as a housewife from the 1950s shutting a man in a freezer. She is dressed in a blue apron with yellow washing up gloves.

The work incorporates a refrigerator that had been abandoned in the street next to the house.

History
Thanet District Council removed the fridge after the appearance of the artwork, claiming the "fridge freezer which is believed to have been part of the installation has been removed by council operatives on the grounds of safety as it was on public land", and would be returned once it had been 'made safe'. Other items by the piece were removed including an empty beer bottle, a broken garden chair and a crate.

The Thanet District Council said they would contact the property owner to discuss the preservation of the artwork. The owner subsequently contacted an art gallery to help preserve the artwork and said that she was "trying to balance the needs of the tenant and the local art community".

The work was posted by Banksy on his Instagram page. It has been interpreted as statement about violence against women. Local residents expressed shock that the area had been cleaned by the council so quickly, with complaints about rubbish usually taking weeks to resolve.

Banksy created another work on Valentine's Day in Bristol in 2018.