After a long break of not writing (life, busy life...), I decided that the next post can't be about whatsoever... So here it is: the biggest, I suppose, female character amongst all the street artists. As I said once that Jef Aerosol is a father of the Street Art (
here), a mother, in this case, would be undoubtedly his peer: madame Miss.Tic (
her official webpage here).
Miss.Tic isn't mysterious (only her real name remains unknown), as I thought once trying to figure out the roots of her pseudonym. There's her full biography all around the internet: lot of interviews, photos and videos (for example:
YouTube's video, where Miss.Tic talks about her book). No wonder: born in 1956 in Montmartre, Paris, she's officially present on the artistic scene since 1985, when she signed her first personal exhibition. I won't write here about her private life. I would only simply mention that Miss.Tic's art was much influenced by the fact that as a young girl, she lost almost all her family. You can read about on Wikipedia French, where's a quite big
article dedicated for her, or in English, though still very
briefly.
Back to her pseudonym (which is interesting story): Miss.Tic. After reading and watching interviews with her, I have an impression that she's somehow very positive and very funny personality, who likes to laugh a lot. Therefore, it didn't surprise me that her pseudonym comes from the character of the Scrooge McDuck universe cartoon (Disney). Magica de Spell, this was the name of the character, was the very powerful sorceress/witch with the characteristic black shoulder-length hair (exactly like a Miss.Tic in real. Btw. maybe it was one of the reason why she has chosen so). In French, the name of Disney's character was translated: Miss.Tick. Another reason to choose her pseudonym was the fact, that during the years of Miss.Tic's beginnings, quite a lot of painters have chosen theirs pseudonyms after the cartoons characters, to underline the break with the abstract and metaphysical intellectualism from the past decades (after
Wikipedia). It was so called "big beta" movement.
Now a little bit about her work: simple stencils, fine idea and a pinch (or even two) of poetry. Everything that's needed to make a discreet but thought-provoking at once, street art. The main iconography are women. In one of the interview Miss.Tic explains that her inspirations have their roots in observation of the woman's status in the society. The images of the women that appear in the newspapers and adds; the women that are sexy, glamour, healthy and young. Miss.Tic says: "It's nothing but an image that I'm trying to reverse and give it some new meaning, trying to do something new with it on my own way. I'm an observer, not a socio-political critic at any case!".
Picture below: Le corps au régime ment. - "The body (bodies) on diet lies". At the same time we can understand: "The body (bodies) of (for?) the army (regiment)".
Miss.Tic is a poet also, which is not hard to figure out whilst reading all these maxims and sentences, which have either a double meaning, or are a word-play. Very often in a phonetic aspect as well. For example, if we would read very fast the maxim "A la vie a l'amor" (picture below) - "For the life and love", we would understand at the same time: "For the life and death" ("amor" is written in Spanish in this case, to achieve her intention of phonetic word-play).
The maxims that Miss.Tic comes up with are sometimes so brilliant, that the stencils become a nice supplement for it rather than inverse. Of course, it's not the case all the time. The seductive woman has a power. For her words to sound clearer...
The men and couples start to appear more and more often in her works, too.
Even though Miss.Tic isn't a socio-political critic, like she's said, she likes to give her "opinion", when it's about some important political events. Then she signs her stencils vel "Miss.Tick Présidente", for us to know that the art was done for some "political" reason. Below the maxim says" On est ni de droite, ni de gauche. On est dans la merde" - "We're not from right, we're not from left. We're in the shit"....(so familiar!)
The animals are the subject in her work, too. Sometimes with maxims, sometimes not. In the beginning usually the cats, now the puppies as well.
"On n'est pas des chiens" - We are not dogs. I think that Miss.Tic, like a real cat, chose her way to walk long ago and will never change her mond. At least we hope so and waiting for more!
