Bookended By Trump

It feels implausible, but once again Donald Trump and his delusional thinking are dominating the news and national discourse as I prepare for my second art show at The Art Center Highland Park.

The last time I was in an exhibit in Highland Park, Illinois I wore a white pantsuit to the opening.

Donald Trump had just been inaugurated. Only weeks earlier  I had joined the millions of outraged women who took to the streets for the Women’s March in DC and I felt empowered.

The indescribable shock and disbelief of his election to the presidency were still very raw when the show opened, and my pantsuit was a nod to the woman who should have been the victor. In March 2017 the nightmare we still can’t wake up from had just begun. Now six years later that same president is being indicted by the government he once led.

Absurdity

Detail Collage by Sally Edelstein ” Fractured State of the Union” hand-cut collage of appropriated images 20″ x 24″

The current exhibit that opens June 23 is called “Absurdity.” I can’t think of a more apt title for the times we have been living in. Since 2015 when then-candidate Trump descended the escalator in Trump Tower to improbably announce his candidacy for president we have been sucked into the negative vortex of Trump world, pulling America into his ego’s gravitational field, into the swirling black hole of his neediness and delusions of grandeur.

A world defined by absurdity has left us depleted, depleting democracy in its wake.

Though energized by seeing these events as a call to action artistically,  like everyone else I am emotionally exhausted.

If my work revolves around addressing the social fictions and myths society perpetuates, there has been no greater spinner of tales than Donald Trump. When it comes to dark  fairy tales he puts the Grimm Brothers to shame.

Truth? Justice? In Whose America?

“There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute” Collage appropriated images by Sally Edelstein 2016

My earlier art show at The Art Center Highland Park entitled “Embedded Messages, Debating the Dream: Truth, Justice, and the American Way” questioned whether truth and justice were becoming antiquated notions in America.

In March 2017, as we, a group of artists/activists, set up the art in the large rooms of the gallery, the travesty of the Trump presidency was very much on our minds. But who could have imagined all the scandals, investigations, impeachments, insurrections, and espionage worthy of a John Le Carre novel that would unfold in the coming years?

Well, actually Hillary could have – she warned us all through 2016.

In 2017 Trump may have thought he would mesmerize us with his glory and his “winning.”

Instead what has happened is that America became addicted to the 24-hour-a-day reality television show that is his not-so-slow-motion downfall. Every day, there were lies and gaffes and insults to allies and legislative blunders and awful policies made worse by horrible execution. And then, beyond that, there were the ethical lapses and an ever-growing hint of something very much like treason in the air.

Truth and justice diminished with each passing year, as our country was becoming unrecognizable. We watched core American beliefs vaporize before our eyes.

Today as reckless as ever, a Federally indicted Donald Trump continues to disseminate disinformation creating chaos.

Trump’s view of the universe did not and does not extend a single inch beyond the boundaries of his own interests. That is why normal concepts like truth or commonly held values or the national interest are completely alien to him.

There is Trump World, and then there is oblivion.

Now there will finally be accountability – truth and justice may once again become the American way.

The absurdity needs to end. Trump world needs to implode and disappear.

I look forward to a Trump-free art exhibit.

I am delighted and honored to be the featured artist as well as the juror for an all too timely show “Absurdity, In Dada We Trust,” opening June 23-August 5, 2023 at The Art Center Highland Park, Illinois.

The Art Center Highland Park
1957 Sheridan Rd Highland Park, IL. June 23- Aug 5, 2023

Opening Reception June 23, 2023 5:30-8pm

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.