Contemporary Italian artist and activist Alexsandro Palombo recently created a campaign about violence against women using pictures of famous women leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Hillary Clinton and American parliamentarian Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others.
Palombo is famously known to use pop culture as a means for activism. He’s widely recognised for using the Simpsons’ and Disney characters to comment on political and socio-cultural themes. This isn't his first time working with doctored images to make a point – in 2015, a campaign he ran featured doctored photographs of US celebrities with bruised faces, the list included names like Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian and even pop star Madonna.
In his current campaign too, the pictures of these women political leaders are shown battered and contused. The message on the posters reads- "I am a victim of domestic abuse. I am paid less. I've experienced genital mutilation. I do not have the right to dress as I want. I can't decide who I'm going to marry. I was raped."
The posters can be seen all around Milan.
Surely, these posters register longer with the audience because of their shock value. The overarching point the artist is trying to make with such famous faces is to remind people that women face violence on a daily basis and that the issue affects everyone, ‘regardless of race, class or religion’.
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