This project was conceived, created, and published from the outskirts of Trinidad, Colorado. The notion came to me on election eve, while I was listening to Rachel Maddow, and deciding which vinyl record I'd put on when her program ended. I realized the faces of the musicians staring back at me from these cardboard sleeves were each a unique conception of celebrity and public image: two concepts that have proven critical during the election of 2016. I have always enjoyed making art that re-uses materials, and how collage can create startling and challenging juxtapositions. I wanted to explore how old record images could serve as a springboard for 21st century rhetoric.
Upon arriving in Trinidad, Colorado, I found it necessary for my work to purchase a computer printer. By chance, I found a color Canon printer on Clearance at Wal-Mart in Trinidad for $23, including color and black ink cartridges. I didn't think I had a use for the color ink capabilities, but I soon realized how even how low-res printouts of images could be used to create a work of political collage.
The plastic 12" LP record sleeve seen below had been hanging on my fridge since the week of my arrival in Trinidad. I found it at a thrift shop, enclosing an original Audio Fidelity pressing-- a hi-fi, mono series from the late 1950s. I was taken by the label's elitist slogan, meant for those who sought experiences of musical appreciation in their living room, not just a means of providing background music. I printed out a black-and-white photo of Donald Trump, crudely cut it out his face, and placed it in the center of the plastic sleeve. In a few test photos, his facial expression leaped from the frame. I decided to move forward.
I had already culled a few dozen LPs from local thrift shops, including some 'authentic' recordings of cultures found only in this region of the country. There was also already a stash of records here; I searched through these as well. I assembled more than I thought I wanted to use, and set to searching the Internet for the appropriate images of the two Presidential candidates. The process of selecting images was time-consuming. For each face I ended up using, I likely printed out three faces that didn't fit. I am not well-versed in imaging-editing software, so easily scaling images for re-purposing wasn't an option. Of course this project might have been made easier by using PhotoShop or another digital media platform. As the records are analog, physical, durable media, I felt my crude printouts and kitchen-scissor trimming work would end up fitting the 'feel' of the project.
Of the albums I chose to use, I ended up omitting only one. The final project is a collection of eighteen images. Each has been edited and 'signed' with my web address and Twitter handle. These images may be freely saved, exchanged, and republished, as long as this small 'signature' is retained.
This election has been influenced heavily by the meme, a homemade visual image meant to be transferred, shared, and passed around via Facebook, Twitter, and other virtual platforms. Like some memes, this project does not seek to contribute useful political 'punditry,' but rather to create interesting, if absurd, visual statements. The faces of the two candidates following the election of 2016 deserve to be de-mystified, no longer to be competing celebrities, but rather the depiction of a leader of the nation, and his worthy competitor. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are humans whose images we are more than familiar with. Putting their image into an unexpected context is surprising, startling, challenging. This project seeks to contribute to the growing realm of online visual rhetoric, but also to challenge our conceptions of celebrity-- both the historic conceptions of celebrity as originally depicted on these record albums, as well as the constructions of celebrity surrounding the two Presidential candidates during the 2016 election. These images juxtapose the race and gender of both candidates; this is intentional, and not intended as specific commentary on either candidate, but to be taken as a larger set of absurd images. Taken as a set, I hope they contribute to an understanding of who ran for the highest office in the land, and what we believed about them as we voted.
