What is the meaning of modern art, anyway? Is it meant to shock and titillate? Is it meant to question the surroundings around us and start a conversation? Even if art as a whole isn’t meant to make a statement, I’ll present to you the works of Justine Lai anyway — a San Francisco based artist who just happened to create Join Or Die, a series of NSFW oil paintings of her having sex with every single US President in chronological order. (As of right now, she’s on Ulysses S. Grant slapping her ass.) Behold, her Artist’s Statement:
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.
It’s a statement of self-sacrifice and anti-authoritarianism; never mind that every single heterosexual Asian man is wincing by his laptop because, oh hey, if the image of the Asian female against a white guy is an uncomfortable one to begin with, there she is giving head to Abraham Lincoln. (Ha ha, “giving head to Abraham Lincoln.” When am I going to ever say that sentence ever again?)
(Hat tip: Andy)
