Should they stay or should they go?
Now that we have a (new) president again, I’m faced with a bit of a dilemma: should I dump the Trump protest art?
This question comes to mind after the Museum of London announced it’s adding the original Trump Baby balloon to its collection. You might remember London protesters “welcomed” the former president with the mini-blimp in July 2018.
And just in time for that year’s Seattle Art Fair, my husband surprised me with the t-shirt version.
Ordinarily, I hoard — I mean, “collect” — things like this for my collages and assemblage sculptures as part of my practice. And it’s common for some museums to collect protest-related ephemera as material culture. In fact, the Smithsonian Institute recently acquired posters and other stuff left behind by pro-Trump insurrectionists on January 6th. But do I really want to remember this era so clearly?
And as the Trump Baby balloon makers pointed out, “…we’re under no illusions that this is the end of the story.” So what should I do with the hat and the t-shirt? Drop a suggestion on my Facebook or Instagram.
Build that wall... with cigar boxes
An idea is worming its way through my design process: a wall built on cigar boxes. (Betcha mine will be finished before the one on the United States’ southern border.)
It’ll most likely (okay,definitely) be smaller than works like the more than 30-feet tall spider by Louise Bourgeois, which required skilled art fabricators to bring to life. But when my lil’ ol’ wall takes a more firm shape, I’ll let you in on my process. Stay tuned.
ARTRUMPS: sending a message
Which would you rather do: send a message, or collect a work of art?
Trick question. You can do both at ARTRUMPS: Resistance and Action, which opens (on purpose) on April Fool's Day. Work by artists around the world is up for sale, including the work of Roz Chast, cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine.
Details:
I hope one or both of my collages compel someone to donate.
And if they do, I suspect I'll use my fee to turn around and purchase someone else's art from the exhibit. Does that count as reinvesting in the arts?