aïda gomez hacks public sign, unlocking hidden messages in our collective subconscious

aïda gomez confronts and manipulates a roadside sign, in her latest public artwork titled ‘ladies first’. the madrid-native encountered the sign — intended to indicate the beginning of a nature trail — in her travels through iceland. the artist began to ask both herself and friends questions about the chosen genders and roles of each figure. more specifically, ‘why does the female figure follow the male?’

for the artist, the original sign implied that the male figure leads his female partner along the nature trail

the inquisitor encountered various answers to her question, but overwhelmingly most people had not even realized the implications of the image. gomez took it upon herself to morph the image and unlock the standardized nature of our social, collective subconscious. this is accomplished with three subtle changes to the original depiction that give the male figure breasts and match his hairstyle to that of the woman behind him. 

the artist added pieces of black tape to the sign to manipulate the figure

the first change included the addition of breasts to the leading figure

the artist used the female figure as the model for her eventual manipulations

eventually the female figures sport matching hairstyles with one leading the other

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