ANBI
1098
Artwork
Street art piece
Refugee Woman from Palestine & Tunisian woman from Djerba
Street Art Museum Amsterdam
Author:
Btoy
Artist Bio:
Btoy is one of the first women who stepped out onto the streets of Barcelonawith detailed multi-layered stencil art that playswith colour, light and shadow to create moody and powerful portraits. Born in Barcelona, Btoy is the child of social activists and refugees fleeing the dictatorial regime in Uruguay lasting from 1973-85. As a self-taught artist, she came to graffiti while completing a photography degree (and after abandoning studies in law), first playing with paste-ups on the streets of Barcelona in the early 2000’s. At that time, before it became the mass tourism hotspot it is today, a welcoming culture and low cost of living in Barcelona created fertile ground for those experimenting with graffiti, underground music, theater and art subcultures. It was in this setting that Btoy began to vigorously investigate feminism, stereotyped gender roles and identities, and to express her own identity through her work, choosing the streets as her medium for their freedom from convention, their hidden moods, memories, and stories.
Place:
Lampertus Zijplein
Date:
Technique:
Spray Can
Material:
Wall
Acquisition:
Commission
Completed:
2016
Condition:
Good / Legible
Physical Description:
The work is done with the stencil technique and the use of montana spray on a flat wall. The two portraits are framed within a two-tone purple and orange background, divided by a long blue line that divides the space of each subject. The contrast between the old woman and the young girl is achieved with great realism and attention to detail, which is concentrated in the woman's wrinkles, the jewellery she is wearing, the cloth around the nape of the young girl's neck and above all in the realistic and penetrating gazes that aim directly at the viewer.
Iconography:
Among the most recurrent themes in Btoy's production is not only the defence of the feminist struggle but also multiculturalism, immigration and social and civil rights. In the following work, a young Palestinian girl and an elderly Tunisian woman from Djerba are depicted with vivid realism, looking at the viewer. The work does not want to take sides openly from a political point of view but simply to give visibility to ordinary people, victims of exclusion, wars and daily difficulties.
Gallery
