For centuries, political, social, and scientific scenarios have always been the prime plot for artists to reimagine situations and propose ideas for change through their art. And just like behind every war there’s a battle to overcome, the latest artwork of noted Spanish artist Mujer Gitana presents a solution to end wars – through love, forgiveness, and compassion. Titled ‘Kindness is your weapon’, the art exhibition at Method Bandra features about four artworks of Gitana which speak about peaceful responses as weapons with the possibility of making this world a better place for the coming generations.
As we walked into this little café nestled on the streets of Bandra, we were swayed by the stunning artworks. Heavy on colours and graffiti, most of Gitana’s artworks feature symbols like doors, wells (depths of the earth), nature, and places of balance accompanied by weapons to represent her ideas of winning the war through peace. With metaphors like wells, sweets and volcanos, the artist tries to convey the more introspective meanings of life and society at large. Gitana tells us that each colour used in the artwork has the ability to move people.
“Vibrant and saturated colours let me connect with certain emotions, and I like to share it with the hope that it makes someone else feel it too. I like bright colours to awaken the eyes of those who look at the pieces,” says Gitana who began her artistic career with graffiti in 2004 and found a starting point where she could investigate her language through shapes, letters and colours.
Bringing art into perspective
The surreal imagery and symbolic representation of much deeper thoughts and questions make Gitana’s introspective artwork immensely expressive. For instance, one of the artworks ‘Magic Sweet Vision’ means, how a piece of sweet has the power of a volcano to solve big problems. Another artwork ‘Pozo’ features a well which represents the universe as a symbol of how clean water can come out of the dark depths. Another artwork ‘Reborn’ is the highlight of this exhibition that delves into the spiritual idea of rebirth and the existence of the soul after death shown through a transit point gate on the painting.
“It's kind of an experiment I've been working on for some time. Use new weapons against gestures of injustice. Compassion and empathy as weapons to fight those wars. Looking with the right eyes is always a difficult exercise to do when something is unfair, but it really works. Because we live in a world where there is so much war and pain that good intentions and peaceful gestures are needed to balance it. And that is my intention and my message” says the artist who finds inspiration from the world that is passing through her eyes today.
She says that art has the potential to bring social change but not everyone uses it for that sole purpose. “With the speed of information and technology, I perceive a superficiality or identity creation through art sometimes, which is also interesting and respectable. Each one has their own mission and needs to talk about,” she adds.
Solving existential mystery
Sharing her thoughts, observations, and events more explicitly in her artwork, Gitana tried to answer existential questions through her paintings. But does the social and political scenario of her own country, Spain, which is battling with economic crises, impact her work, we ask. “Not in a direct and explicit way, but indirectly yes. At the moment I am exploring more spiritual points of view. Perhaps the political and social crisis is reflected in the way the world is emotionally ill. Diseases and events that arise directly from not knowing how to manage what we feel - like depression, anxiety, and suicide - are becoming more common in my work,” she confesses and adds that as an artist, her medicine has been to be able to tell through her paintings what things have helped her, “to understand, live, and try to make this world a little better.”
Spanish artist Mujer Gitana |
Though Gitana started as a graffiti artist, her travel around the world inspired her to experiment with other figurative art forms to share her message of existence, love and peace. “I love that art evolves, and in the end, it is a reflection and always speaks of the moment in which we live. Perhaps this abstract concept speaks of the freedom to feel and express it even if the viewer does not understand it. But it is an expression and I love the nature of that word in all its art forms,” says the artist before signing off.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
