Meryl Streep’s 2017 Golden Globes acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award in January epitomized the thoughts of a majority of the American electorate. When speaking about how stunned she had been to her core by the way the then candidate Trump had given himself license to imitate and vilify a disabled reporter, she went on to describe the ripple effect that it causes when the powerful give others permission to disrespect others. “…Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”
Like a magmatic gas percolating through centuries old lava, the disrespect, vilification and discrimination toward women made their appearance for all to see during the competition for the highest and most powerful office in the world. It may be fair to say that prior to 2016 most Americans would not have likely used the word “misogynist” in a sentence nor would most Americans have considered “grabbing a woman by the pussy” —without consent—a sport that an adult male would actually engage in. Yet, the theatrics of the past election cycle and continuing during this presidency as well as the current dethroning of powerful men such as Crosby, Ailes, O’Reilly and Weinstein amid allegations of misbehavior reflect centuries old discrimination against women. Artists have not been immune to the percolating events surrounding our days. As Nina Simone once said, “You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” One such artist has taken to streets with her art.
Amaia Gomez Marzabal was born in the northern industrial city of Bibao, Spain, which has seen a revitalization after the construction of the iconic Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. Besides the Basque artists, Marzabal explains that she has been influenced not only by Bilbao’s cityscape surroundings, including chimney smoke, the smell of ironwork in the air from the factories, the fog and rain of the weather, but also by witnessing political upheaval among those Basque separatist groups seeking independence from government, including the more violent strand of armed separatists such as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA).
In 2008, Marzabal and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Public University of the Basque Country in 2008. Marzabal presently lives and continues to develop her art in New York. She finds that the New York artistic movement is communal, cooperative and supportive. She is also amazed how galleries market their events and attract visitors and the curious to consider works of art. There is space for an artist in New York to aspire and inspire.
Through her paintings, prints and digital images, she brings attention to color, surface, language and ritual and reinterprets Basque traditional textile motifs and decorative arts. She also is working on a project that focuses on issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women in the public space of the streets by placing stickers about urban landscapes around the world. She explains, “I want to speak about how, even though [we] are living in a developed world, women continue to suffer discrimination and violence in their normal lives.” She also tries to document the street scenes with photographs that are uploaded to social media. One of her gender stickers shows the back of young woman wearing a yellow jacket with the word “Girl” simply inscribed on the back of the jacket. Check out Marzabal’s work at www.marzabal.net
