COURTESY THE ARTISTS
An article published today by the Atlantic spotlights a surge of satirical and critical art aimed at the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, with a focus on the artists David Gleeson and Mary Mihelic’s T.RUMP Bus project.
Gleeson and Mihelic (who also founded the collective t.Rutt) bought a Donald Trump tour bus on Craigslist and made some alterations: the outside of the vehicle now says “Make Fruit Punch Great Again,” the back windows display the Arabic translation of “Make America Great Again.” On one window, there is a list of Trump’s “struggles” based around Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The artists took the thing on tour, confusing both Trump supporters and haters. From the piece:
The bus normally causes a stir wherever it goes. On the road, the artists regularly get Trump supporters taking selfies with the bus and Hillary supporters calling them Nazis—until each group realizes what the bus is actually saying. Most recently, the artists have started showcasing burqa-covered Trump campaign posters near the bus when they’re parked.
“We try to create a moment or a pause,” says Gleeson. “We have something that is equally grand that counterbalances that big emotional presence that [Trump] tries to stoke. Hopefully it enables people to think about what the American political process is, and who this man is, and why is he has such an appeal, and to hopefully get a little smile out of it too.”
Mihelic—who said that she is influenced by the confrontational feminist collective Guerrilla Girls—told the Atlantic that she calls Trump a “performance artist” in his own right. Read the full article here.