For the past 3 years I've been working on this big paper collage (6 x 6 feet, all torn/cut by hand).

It’s essentially a portrait of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.

This thread is about some of the ideas, sources, and references that inform it.

After Trump won the election, I started reading all these articles from experts on authoritarianism. They advised keeping a list of things that are subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember it all.

That’s one way to think about what this work is.

I also wanted to reflect on what it's like to consume mass media in the Trump era, both off and online.

You know that schizoid feeling induced by information overload?

I thought about what this would look like if you could capture it all at once.

These sections are approximately 12 x 16 inches each.

I removed everything related to Trump’s campaign and presidency, along w/ pop-cultural and art historical references that relate to our time.

By arranging small groupings like pieces of an unsolved puzzle, the printed media would reinforce the memory of my digital experience.

I didn't really know what to do with all this stuff, so I turned to the past for inspiration.

The irony of looking back, in the context of Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, was not lost on me.

I thought about the tradition of history paintings, which aim to accurately portray the subject in its own time.

This seemed to offer a way to examine my own experience of the present.

In some way, this work tries to capture a history of what is happening now.

Fundamentally, Trump is an all-devouring colossus that grabs and smashes everything in his path.

He leaves behind nothing that is good, true, or beautiful.

On the left is Francisco de Goya's "The Colossus" (1812), which portrays a cruel and catastrophic scene.

On the right is Odilon Redon's "The Cyclops" (1914), a lecherous monster preying on a lone woman.

But what about American political art?

Philip Guston's "San Clemente" (1975) was the ideal form for me to steal.

Instead of being marooned on a beach, Trump would be surrounded by the pastoral landscape of his country club golf courses.

This Guston quote hit me: “What kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything—and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue? I thought there must be some way I could do something about it.” © 1979 Sidney B. Felsen

This poster by Jonathan Horowitz was at @PRINTED_MATTER's 2017 NY Art Book Fair.

I picked up copy for a donation to the @ACLU (this was right after the Muslim travel ban fiasco) and used it for the grounds and apocalyptic sky.

@JerrySaltz in @Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/2017/01/staring-at-trumps-body-what-do-you-see.html

The images on the left are from November 2017, and the ones on the right are what it looks like today.

Trump’s head is made up of his own image but also contains enemies bested and like-minded lackeys who’ve enabled him. The connecting tissue is mostly pornography.

(I grabbed a lot of pussy y’all)

His body is comprised of politicking and graphic designs that illustrated long-form think pieces that flooded mainstream periodicals post-2016.

All of this content towers over a landscape of American transgression, superiority, entertainment, etc.

Here are just a handful of the art historical references in it:

Judy Chicago “The Dinner Party” (1979)

Edward Hopper “Nighthawks” (1942)

Jasper Johns "Flag (Moratorium)" (1969)

Josef Beuys "I Like America and America Likes Me" (1974)

Amy Sherald “First Lady Michelle Obama” (2018)

Kehinde Wiley “President Barack Obama” (2018)

Salvador Dali “Premonition of Civil War” (1936)

Richard Prince “Untitled (Cowboy)” (1989)

Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” (1830)

Jan Van Eyck “The Last Judgment” (1426)

Michelangelo “The Torment of Saint Anthony” (1488)

Hieronymus Bosch “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1510)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder “The Tower of Babel” (1565)

Thomas Cole “The Course of Empire: Destruction” (1836)

If you’re interested in hearing me ramble on about this thing, please check out the interview I did with Paul Kwiatkowski on @WakeIslandPod

We really covered the gamut in under a half-hour.

https://www.wakeislandbroadcast.com/show-notes/2015/10/14/preserved-lemons-3k25z

My hope is to eventually turn this project into a big red book with a ton images of the paper scraps (redacted sources), cut-ups, closeup detail shots and robust glossary for who's who and what's what.

By showing how the collage was made, a visual narrative of the Trump era unfolds.

Until then, I keep this motherfucker covered with a white sheet like some Dorian Gray shit.

Fin.