Politics on the creative edge
Street artists push their message to the limit and sometimes beyond to back or bust Trump and Clinton.
In the absence of election-year artwork as ubiquitous as Shepard Fairey’s 2008 “Hope” poster, political memes have become dominant images this political season. But that doesn’t mean the art world has been silent.
Activist street artists have been especially busy creating some of the presidential campaign’s most provocative political statements. Their bold approach inherits a long tradition.
“We’re not talking about sanctioned public art,” says veteran L.A. art agitator Robbie Conal. His posters depicting Donald Trump framed by the words “Bully Culprit” have been pasted all over the city. “In my case, it’s a minor form of civil disobedience.”
Conal gained popularity in the 1980s for his anti-Reagan “Contra Diction” posters and other responses to the Iran-Contra affair. But while Republican lawmakers have been the subjects of some of his most striking images, he’s targeted Democrats as well. One of his most memorable posters was an image of Bill Clinton juxtaposed with the words “Dough Nation.”
For this election, Conal says, “with Trump, there’s no way I couldn’t do anything.”
At 72, the artist continues to lead an army of volunteers that placards Los Angeles streets with his anti-Trump posters.
“Thousands and thousands of people see the posters whether they are looking for them or not,” Conal says. “That’s a level of engagement in a much more public sphere than a clean white box — an art gallery or a museum.”
Artist Daniel Gonzalez, who made a series of “Viva Bernie!” signs this year in his Highland Park print shop, credits Conal’s early Reagan posters as one of his main career inspirations.
“We bother the status quo,” Gonzalez says of street artists. “We get people to stop and look.”
It’s not only liberal artists who are trying to shake things up with political images. Republican artists are harder to find, but L.A.based graphic artist SABO has gotten attention by waging a poster campaign against what he calls the “leftist” establishment.
“After George W. Bush was elected, I couldn’t turn around anywhere and not hear someone define me for being a Republican … for being a racist, being a homophobe, being rich,” says SABO. “But I’m none of those things. I noticed there were no artists pleading my case or standing up for me as a Republican. And I kind of figured, ‘Screw it, I’ll do it.’ ”
One of SABO’s recent stunts targeted the “Refugee” exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City. The artist manipulated bus stop posters promoting the exhibit by substituting the original photographs with images of the Islamic State fighters.
“I don’t think my work is meant to offend,” SABO says. “I think I challenge people to such a degree that maybe I scare them.”
For many artists, it’s Trump’s stances on immigration and national security that have spurred them to address the public directly.
The artist known as Plastic Jesus responded to Trump’s pledge to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. by constructing a miniature wall around the Republican nominee’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Plastic Jesus is also responsible for the “No Trump Anytime” parking signs that have cropped up in Los Angeles and other cities across the country.
“I have become more and more frustrated with the mainstream media ignoring issues that really affect most people,” the artist says.
INDECLINE, an underground collective of anonymous artists, feels a similar compulsion to speak directly to the public.
The group brings a punk-rock ethos to ambitious street installations that are filmed and disseminated on social media to ensure their messages last beyond the art’s removal.
“We want to redirect attention,” says an INDECLINE spokesperson.
The piece that’s gotten the biggest attention by far is INDECLINE’s life-sized naked Trump statues, which were unveiled simultaneously in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Seattle and New York on Aug. 18. The statues were quickly taken down by city workers in each location but not before generating a social media storm.
Painters, cartoonists and multimedia fine artists may not receive the same levels of viral attention as street artists, but many are using their work to voice their election concerns.
Los Angeles artist Eric Yahnker, who calls himself a “glorified political cartoonist,” makes meticulous pencil drawings of political and pop culture figures — Hillary Clinton smoking a cigarette, Trump wearing earrings, Gollum from “Lord of the Rings” in a “Make America Great Again” hat — that have been seen in galleries and social media platforms around the world.
David Gleeson, who with Mary Mihelic forms the art duo called t.Rutt, cites the late dissident and Czech President Vaclev Havel as part of his inspiration for purchasing the first campaign bus used by Trump for a traveling performance art series in which he and Mihelic interact with voters.
“He said if we are to change our worldview, images must change,” Gleeson says of Havel. “Artists have a very important job to do. They’re not just out there entertaining rich people. They really matter.”
“I don’t pretend for one minute that my work will change anything or much at all in society,” says Plastic Jesus. “But if I can change one person’s opinion or even consider other ways of looking at the issues in the news, then I’ve done my job.” This story was reported by Deitch, Stefanie De Leon Tzic, Brian Marks and Ethan Varian, graduate students at the Annenberg School of Journalism . It was written by Deitch. View the students’ original project at uscstoryspace.com/2016-2017/ group07/.