Guerrilla Girls: Feminist Street Posters, 1985-1991

a The Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous artist collective that advocates for feminism and human rights for all people through radical art and visuals. This group resists capitalist individualism by using anonymity over personal recognition to draw more attention to the group cause. In 1985, the Guerrilla Girls began putting up posters in Soho and Tribeca, New York to bring light to political and social feminist causes. This poster protests against censorship, specifically having to do with a woman's right to reproductive rights. This work uses bold colors and and covers the mouth of an image of the Mona Lisa with a fig leaf to demonstrate censorship directly and in-your-face. The use of the Mona Lisa is not particularly discussed, but could be argued to be a representation of powerful women as the actual artwork continues to be one of the most well-known female subjects in art, in turn making this figure powerful in her fame and act of drawing attention to women figures.  This provides a new representation of women as rebellious, capable and strong opponents, going against the stigma created as people attempt to restrict women's rights, expecting them to be submissive.

The fig leaf in particular is also a mystery, but as it is an iconic symbol in the Bible, it may be representative of hiding something distasteful, self-righteous, or hypocritical in potentially alluding to Adam and Eve's attempts at covering their guilt and making themselves righteous after losing their (and now humanity's) fall. Even if unintentionally, this can serve as a message that the same people aiming to restrict women's rights are also acting righteous, even after their contribution to “humanity's fall” (the regression of human rights), similar to the Bible story. Although this is speculation, there is intention to these specific imagery's and in this draws viewer's attention to deeper meanings and messages. This art form was a new type of politicized street art, and in this drew in a much larger audience. This collective should serve as inspiration for artists to work alongside their communities, because there is power in numbers.