Ivanka Trump hits back at art exhibit of lookalike vacuuming breadcrumbs
Exhibit shows a Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to throw crumbs for her to clean up
“Ivanka Vacuuming” at Flashpoint Gallery Photograph: Ryan Maxwell/CULTURALDC
A new art exhibit at a Washington DC museum shows an Ivanka Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to toss crumbs for her to clean up.
The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, Ivanka Vacuuming, opened on 1 February and continues through 17 February at the Flashpoint Gallery. The public is encouraged to “throw crumbs on to the carpet, watching as Ivanka elegantly vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering”.
A large text description of the work hanging on the gallery wall describes Trump as “a figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities – daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde”. It calls the act of throwing bread crumbs on to the carpet for her to vacuum “surprisingly pleasurable”.
But Trump and her brothers Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump criticized the exhibit on Tuesday as a sexist attempt to humiliate her.
“Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter,” Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser, tweeted alongside a link to a story on the exhibit.
Trump Jr tweeted: “Sad, but not surprising to watch self professed ‘feminists’ launching sexist attacks against Ivanka Trump. In their crazed world, sexism is OK if hurts their political enemies.”
Eric Trump, on Fox News, called his sister a “powerful woman who has done more for women than probably anybody in Washington DC”.
An Ivanka Trump lookalike vacuums crumbs thrown by spectators at Jennifer Rubell’s art exhibit Ivanka Vacuuming 2019. Photograph: Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP
The work is open to the public from 6pm to 8pm, presented by the CulturalDC arts organization. Its executive director, Kristi Maiselman, said her group was always happy to present “timely boundary-pushing installations” like this.
The gallery text declares Ivanka Trump to be a “contemporary feminine icon” and an avatar for the complexities of modern femininity.
Rubell, a New York-based conceptual artist, said in an interview on the CulturalDC website that the experience is meant to draw observers and crumb-throwers into a complicit relationship.
“Here is what’s complicated: we enjoy throwing the crumbs for Ivanka to vacuum. That is the icky truth at the center of the work. It’s funny, it’s pleasurable, it makes us feel powerful, and we want to do it more,” she said.
“Also, we know she’ll keep vacuuming whether we do it or not, so it’s not really our fault, right?”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/05/ivanka-trump-lookalike-vacuuming-art-exhibit
Can you imagine the outrage if Moochell obama had been portrayed like this if people had been allowed to throw produce at her in a garden setting?
There would have been lynch mobs forming.
The folks that put this "art" work on is taxpayer funded BTW. They got $120,000 funding in 2016.
Exhibit shows a Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to throw crumbs for her to clean up
“Ivanka Vacuuming” at Flashpoint Gallery Photograph: Ryan Maxwell/CULTURALDC
A new art exhibit at a Washington DC museum shows an Ivanka Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to toss crumbs for her to clean up.
The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, Ivanka Vacuuming, opened on 1 February and continues through 17 February at the Flashpoint Gallery. The public is encouraged to “throw crumbs on to the carpet, watching as Ivanka elegantly vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering”.
A large text description of the work hanging on the gallery wall describes Trump as “a figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities – daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde”. It calls the act of throwing bread crumbs on to the carpet for her to vacuum “surprisingly pleasurable”.
But Trump and her brothers Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump criticized the exhibit on Tuesday as a sexist attempt to humiliate her.
“Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter,” Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser, tweeted alongside a link to a story on the exhibit.
Trump Jr tweeted: “Sad, but not surprising to watch self professed ‘feminists’ launching sexist attacks against Ivanka Trump. In their crazed world, sexism is OK if hurts their political enemies.”
Eric Trump, on Fox News, called his sister a “powerful woman who has done more for women than probably anybody in Washington DC”.
An Ivanka Trump lookalike vacuums crumbs thrown by spectators at Jennifer Rubell’s art exhibit Ivanka Vacuuming 2019. Photograph: Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP
The work is open to the public from 6pm to 8pm, presented by the CulturalDC arts organization. Its executive director, Kristi Maiselman, said her group was always happy to present “timely boundary-pushing installations” like this.
The gallery text declares Ivanka Trump to be a “contemporary feminine icon” and an avatar for the complexities of modern femininity.
Rubell, a New York-based conceptual artist, said in an interview on the CulturalDC website that the experience is meant to draw observers and crumb-throwers into a complicit relationship.
“Here is what’s complicated: we enjoy throwing the crumbs for Ivanka to vacuum. That is the icky truth at the center of the work. It’s funny, it’s pleasurable, it makes us feel powerful, and we want to do it more,” she said.
“Also, we know she’ll keep vacuuming whether we do it or not, so it’s not really our fault, right?”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/05/ivanka-trump-lookalike-vacuuming-art-exhibit
Can you imagine the outrage if Moochell obama had been portrayed like this if people had been allowed to throw produce at her in a garden setting?
There would have been lynch mobs forming.
The folks that put this "art" work on is taxpayer funded BTW. They got $120,000 funding in 2016.
