The following is a small stencil on the wall of a Portsmouth University building.
Every time I see it I am puzzled about what it represents and what it is. The first thing to note is that the actual stencil was square in shape as the outer lines are shown by the paint being sprayed just beyond the edges.
As shown the stencil is on a facing wall in a narrow-ish alley so can only be seen when approaching one way. It is therefore highly visible only from one direction, which may - or may not - be significant.
Like all such symbols it may be a simple expression of one person's creative thoughts at one point in time. No more and no less. This may be unique and carry no further meaning than was in the creator's head at the time. If so there is nothing more to say.
However, if it is more than this, here are my thoughts.
First Thoughts
My first thought was that it was a swallow sitting on a crescent moon with its forked tail pointing downwards.
This seems an odd image in its own right and is it a symbol for anything? My first thought was that it could be an underground image for something I didn't know about. (given that I thought I might write about this made me decidedly uneasy!) However a Google Image revealed no such images. The nearest named image was the Bluebird on the Moon
Whilst this has a couple of the same features - a bird with a forked tail on a crescent moon - it is obviously a very different design to the Portsmouth example. The Bluebird on the Moon is also a Wordpress site based in the USA, so it is unlikely to have a connection with Portsmouth.
If it is a moon behind the bird then it could also be a reference to Portsmouth Football Club's badge - which has a crescent moon on, but as with the Bluebird on the Moon, the differences are marked, with the 'horns' of the moon on the badge pointing straight up.
A final thought - a crescent moon is often a Muslim symbol (as shown by various countries' flags -such as Pakistan) but how the bird fits in is unclear.
A Different Interpretation
And then it was pointed out to me that the Portsmouth image could in fact be a flying bird, with its wings outstretched, wingtips pointing forwards.
This makes quite a lot of sense, but even so a Google image search produces nothing exactly like it, and for the vast of such images the wing tips are pointing backwards. Of all the stencils seen so far the closest are a group of stencils given on an American website
as shown below. However, the wingtips are smudged and the tail fanned and often they are just badly drawn.
And one final thought. There is a different bird symbol that may carry meaning in the context of Portsmouth.
A rival football club called Cardiff City has a flying bluebird (with forked tail) as its symbol, but this doesn't fit either as the wing tips are pointing backwards.
Even though so there does not seem to be an obvious explanation for the Portsmouth bird, and it may simply be a 'joie-de-vivre' (though requiring a bit of effort), the puzzle remains.
Of course if you know any more please let me know at cdaniell22@gmail.com
Chris
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