Desecration: an American artwork.
The flags are only part of this artwork. The heart of it is in the actual doing. By sewing at Trump rallies, the artist bring attention to Trump’s outrageous statements and starts discussions about them. Oddly, the fact that the artist is sewing them onto an American flag does not seem to matter.
By juxtaposing Trump’s words against American ideals in a more concrete way, it removes the emotion from them. When people talk about what quote they would sew on a flag, they aren’t thinking emotionally – and that makes it easy to talk in a peaceful way.
The Betsy Ross House.
Mary Mihelic started embroidering Trump quotes onto American flags on Flag Day. She unveiled the performance in 2016 in front of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia.
Let them come to you.
The bus is not a divisive place. It attracts people to it. When people come to you (not vice versa), they are more open and trusting. If you have art, they will come.
The artists always talk about the art first. Trump is simply what the art is about. They never introduce themselves as protestors; they are artists. Art is approachable – and that is why the bus is so successful.
Befriend the protestors.
If there is a big crowd of protestors, the artists get nervous. Protestors are the most likely to misunderstand the bus and overreact. The first thing the artists do after they park the bus is give protestors Scrotal Majority and Hasta La Vista Donny buttons.
You would be surprised by how many people pose in front of the bus thinking it is pro-Trump. Sometimes you tell them it’s not what they think. Sometimes you wait and see if they will get it. It’s worth the wait when they do.
Should we tell them?
The artist found an enormous old American flag in an antiques shop in Southern California. They traveled with the flag for months, debating what to embroider on it. Then Trump’s hot mic comment hit.
If it doesn’t belong on a flag, it doesn’t belong in the White House.
“Would you be surprised to learn that the campaign bus Donald Trump used during the Iowa causes in February came equipped with a stripper pole? Yeah, us neither."
TimeOut
The reactions to the 11 x 15 foot flag with Grab ‘em by the Pussy embroidered on it were extreme. People either loved the flag or were violently disgusted by it. (In D.C., two people got in a fistfight arguing over it.)
The artists now stay within eyesight of the police at Trump rallies. They leave early if they got a bad vibe. At one rally, they were followed out of the parking lot by a group of white supremacists yelling kill them, bomb them. A low-speed bus chase ensued. The bus pulled over to avoid an accident. Reporters from Vice were traveling with the artists that day; they got out and confronted the Nazis with their cameras – and they finally left.
The hot mic heated things up.
