Piecing It Together with Broobs: The New Wave of Political Posters
You may have come across a colorful and intricate collage picture while scrolling through Instagram. The subject of the image was encompassed by a circle of vividly colored flowers and a bright halo shined behind their head. These famed pieces are created by Ruby Marquez , who is better known by their artist name Broobs. Over the course of their career, Broobs has used art as a political statement. They designed political posters for Bernie Sanders in 2016 (don’t we wish that he was the Democratic candidate for the Presidential election right now) and during the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 they created memorial pieces for victims whose lives were lost due to racial injustice and police brutality. Read our exclusive interview to learn more about Broobs.
Where are you based?
I’m based in San Francisco, originally from East LA.
You have a very unique style of art. Can you tell us how you got into art and how you found your style?
I’ve always been into art as a kid. Most of my time as a kid was spent helping my gramma make piñatas for the party store she ran. My family was also very catholic growing up and I feel like growing up around that iconography really melted into my brain.
Collage art is really cool. Do you normally come up with an idea and then find what you want to create or do you see something and it inspires you to create around it?
Usually, I work in terms of projects, so I come up with an idea or concept and then spend time researching subjects and then create.
What are your artistic influences?
I’m mostly inspired by music and I tend to make playlists of the music that I’m listening to while creating art, I used to do it monthly.... maybe I’ll start doing that again soon.
Your works cover different topics such as the BLM movement, LGBTQI+ visibility, feminism, and voting. Why is it important to you that your art stands for a social cause?
Well, I believe all good art is political, and I just try to be straightforward about my intentions and stance on how I see the world and how I’d like it to be. Knowledge of the past will help us shape our future.
What are your motivations while creating more politically driven pieces? How do you see the artist’s role in breaking taboos, and creating political impact?
My motivation is to help energize people to get into the streets and to make people aware of the flawed systems we have in place. I would like to radicalize as many people as possible to make a successful revolution happen.
You said in your Instagram story 'Everyone is welcome to repost, I do not get paid to make art.' Do you consider yourself as designing for a cause, instead of for profit?
I guess I am because I know that’s what I have to offer the world, and I would like to live on a planet that isn’t always at war, where resources are shared amongst everyone, where everyone has their basic human rights met; that’s why I do what I do. Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society so I still have to do odd jobs to keep my head above the water.
A lot of your art lately is around the Black Lives Matter movement. Did you protest? Were any of your posters used in the protests?
I was at several protests but I never saw any of my posters out there but then again I wasn’t really looking for them.
You are making posters about trans rights and feminism. As a nonbinary person, what do you think about the rise of anti-transgender “radical” feminists? How can we work towards feminism being more intersectional?
Well first off, fuck terfs.
My own gender journey is just beginning so personally I don’t know how I identify but I do believe art helps people understand topics very easily so I think that can help people understand what intersectional feminism looks like, I think the biggest take away is to be open to being wrong and actively correcting ourselves and not feeling guilty for getting things wrong.
You are clearly a Bernie Sanders supporter. How do you feel about how things turned out with the primaries? Will we be seeing Bien/Harris posters from you?
I wasn’t really a Bernie Sanders supporter. I supported his platform because it was the furthest left-leaning of the democratic candidates running for president at the time of the primaries. Honestly, I’m not a democrat. Will I be voting for Biden? Yeah, but nothing on his platform makes me wanna make art for his campaign so probably not.
We love the poster you did for CALMA. Can you tell us a little bit about this organization and what inspired you to work with them?
CALMA is a group of activists helping people survive the desert while crossing into the US from Mexico. But they also do a lot of community work and education. Honestly, I’m not the best at summarizing so just follow them on IG and find out for yourself — @calmaofficial_org.
You are part of a Drag show called REPARATIONS. This looks super fun. Can you tell us a little bit about this and how we can watch it?
So since COVID-19 has pretty much closed everything, the drag community here in San Francisco has moved online. The show Reparations is a digital drag show hosted by Nicki Jizz. It’s usually every 3rd Friday of the month on twitch.tv/DRAGALIVE.
The show consists of all Black drag performers from the Bay and beyond. I just happen to help make the art and promote the show as my way of giving back to my community.
How are you staying positive during a shelter in place? How did this affect your art?
Well at the beginning of the year, I kinda fell apart. So SIP kinda helped me work through my little crisis I had by allowing me to stay in bed and heal, so most of the beginning was spent trying to feel ok in my body. It hasn’t been the greatest situation. I got fired for trying to organize my workplace and so making art became essential to staying alive.
To learn more about Broobs, please follow them via the below Instagram accounts:
@nicki_jizz
@visibiliti_
@calmaofficial_org
