Justine Lai – Paints herself having sex with U.S. Presidents

justine lai having sex with the president

Imagine politics without controversies? Hard task that! Intentional or media hype, controversies and politics for a long time have been sharing a common border, which sometimes creates a fuss, but often comes across as a source of entertainment (at least for the masses). Well, we’ve heard about politicians being linked with secretaries and what not, but here comes a twist in the tale – An artist named Justine Lai, in her new project, paints herself (oil painting) having sex with each president of the USA, in chronological order. Check out the sideshow here, but what made the artist do so is after the jump.

In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.

I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that’s strictly pornographic — the lurid and hardcore, the predictably “controversial.” One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its “Fuck the Man” symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.

Via: Justine Lai

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