“Gender Norms in Public Signs” is an art project that aims to shed light on the constant gender norms that are emphasized by society. We see hundreds of public signs on a daily basis and many of them conform to these socially constructed gender roles. This art project was inspired by the pseudonymous England based artist Banksy, whose street art draws attention to social and political ideas. This project is a series of digitally altered common public signs that depict gender stereotypes. People have become so used to these typical designs that often they no longer question the context behind these signs. The graffiti-styled alterations are eye-catching and an effective method to emphasize the subtlety of gender norms in public signs. This project is an attempt to reverse “traditional roles of cultural expressions” (Aladro-Vico, Jivkova-Semova and Bailey 2018) by directly changing the cultural expressions in our society, through the conspicuous changes of public signs that are taken for granted by society.

Aladro-Vico, Eva, Dimitrina Jivkova-Semova, and Olga Bailey. “Artivism: A New Educative Language for Transformative Social Action.” Comunicar 26, no. 57 (2018): 09–18. https://doi.org/10.3916/c57-2018-01.

“Banksy Biography & Artwork: Artists.” Street Art Bio, November 3, 2020. https://www.streetartbio.com/artists/banksy/.