Though at times the visual aspects of Ainize Txopitea’s works can seem anomalous, there is a strong thread that binds her pieces together, not through images, but through words. Poetry for Ainize is her true art, the purest form of expression with which she enhances, romanticizes and politicises the collages and digital imagery that makes up her work. Just as the images are formed by layer upon layer of visual stimuli, so is her art work completed by adding another layer of meaning through her poetry.

The words command the viewer to look again, to allow the essence of the words, the frequent purity of her emotions to filter through the mind. Encouraging us to give into the night, the dreams, the silence where ‘time flies’, Ainize’s poetry avoids any resting place.

It is without gender, or specification; evocative of proverbs, where time can not age the meaning. However, simultaneously the symbiosis between art and poetry enables the artist to flood us with a torrent of images and thought processes, questions and possibly even some answers. Living through the digital revolution where download speed and Photoshop magic convince us that we can drink up art, culture, politics and sex before breakfast by clicking on to the latest craze, Ainize and her work becomes both advocate and challenger.

The presence of the artist in her work is dominant throughout whether seen in her self-portraits or through the images of women she chooses to give her voice to. Ainize is one and all of the women whether in the guise of an overtly sexual nude or a uniformed male usurper. Additionally, the artist is seen not only through images of herself but through her own words. Through her poetry she achieves an overriding presence, ownership, without the need to place herself physically within the picture. Her words are as much a part of her, demonstrative of her self, as a physical presence of her.

Untitled. 42 x 30 cm. 2007

For Ainize, chaos is something that appears both in technique and thematically. It can be seen in the turbulent typography, the rise and fall of the letters that shout at us in their bold black, white and reds, the undulating spaces. As inspiration, it is a constant source. Ainize welcomes it into her life and feeds it until it is full, observing its growth and the effects it brings with it, making the whole process of using life as a muse, seeing every situation through the eyes of an artist or indeed poet, an integral part of the process.

The birds that can be seen alighting the earthly restraints of Big Brother’s watchful eye represent a freedom achieved through inspiration with the simple message that “time is silence that flies”. Whilst the delicate wings of the butterfly reinforce this power in reference to the chaos theory itself, the subject of anarchy appearing once more. Both are carriers of that silence as they take to the air. And with that silence, comes unspoken words.

The silence is the silence that flies. 50 x 70 cm. Diptic. 2007

Words pulse through Ainize Txopitea. They are part of her make up, an extension of her physical body, an extension that can be seen throughout her work. In 2007’s “When Pencil’s Cry” we see that words flow through her very veins like a life force.

When Pencil’s Cry. 70 x 50 cm. 2007

Poetry streams down her face as tears, or grows like hair and though in “Poesía sin Sentido” she may cover her ears and eyes to the “evils” she may experience, she will never allow her mouth to censor her thoughts.

Poesia sin Sentido(s). 85 x 60 cm. 2006

If we are then to see any part of a woman’s body, as part of her creativity, then the image of the man shaving the woman’s head (one of very few appearances by men in this collection), becomes one of violence, destruction and oppression.

Untitled. 42 x 30 cm. 2007

However, the women that we see, the artist in her many guises, are anything but weak. They are iconic and masterful and through the poetry, are given a voice. Likewise with this collection Ainize Txopitea has indeed achieved “Ser Palabra”; to be word.

October 2007