Philly artists take aim at Trump - using his former tour bus
A former Donald Trump campaign tour bus is heading toward Philadelphia from Iowa this week - only, it's received a few modifications.
A former Donald Trump campaign tour bus is heading toward Philadelphia from Iowa this week - only, it's received a few modifications.
Instead of TRUMP, the large block letters on the side now read "T. RUMP." The "Make America Great Again" slogan has been tweaked to "Make Fruit Punch Great Again." And, in place of a campaign staffer, it's South Kensington artist David Gleeson behind the wheel.
Plans to sell the bus made news nationally in September. At the time, the owner, an Iowa businessman, told news outlets that the Trump campaign had refocused on canvassing by phone and no longer required the 1998-model bus, which has more than a million miles on it.
Gleeson said he purchased the bus and brought in a team to modify it under orders from t.Rutt, a Philadelphia artist who prefers to stay anonymous. The absurd piece of performance-art-on-wheels is called Hasta la vista, Donny!, so named in the hopes that this piece of street theater might help hasten Trump's exit from the Republican presidential primary race.
"I think the art performance is about general bewilderment with the political landscape and [the idea] that someone with a message as divisive as Mr. Trump's could get such traction," Gleeson said Tuesday morning by phone from Des Moines, where he was preparing the bus for its journey.
"It's not particularly partisan. It truly is trying to bring the unvarnished aspect of art into that political setting, and see how people respond."
Gleeson's team, which includes Tyler School of Art alumna Sarah Muehlbauer and longtime Deptford resident Mike Stevens, now of Virginia, will steer the bus toward Newtown, Iowa, on Wednesday, to a town hall for Gov. Christie. Then, they plan to proceed to Philadelphia by the end of the week.
Trump's campaign spokeswoman declined to comment on the work, which was noted in the Des Moines Register and on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show.
T.Rutt - an homage to R. Mutt, the signature Marcel Duchamps scrawled on his ready-made urinal-turned-artwork, Fountain - intends to show the work as part of a forthcoming exhibition at Kensington's Crane Arts, of which Gleeson is a founder.
Then, the T. RUMP bus will proceed to the Conception Art Fair in Miami in December.
T.Rutt had been working on a series of pieces inspired by Trump's performance in the first Republican presidential debate and by his subsequent remarks that the moderator, Fox's Megyn Kelly, had "blood coming out of her wherever." So, when the tour bus was listed for sale on Craigslist, t.Rutt sent Gleeson to make a deal.
Gleeson negotiated a $14,000 price for the bus. (He told the sellers he wasn't sure what it would be used for. "I said, 'I think it's going to be political memorabilia.' ") Then, Gleeson returned with his team Saturday to overhaul the bus for the journey back to Philadelphia.
It will be a different kind of campaign tour.
At stops on the way, passersby will be invited to hurl shots of fruit punch to stain the artwork.
"It gives the opportunity to do a very physical expression. Politics becomes so abstract and emotional," Gleeson said.
As well, he has been instructed to stop the bus each day at dusk and drive a Trump-logo golf ball from the roof of the bus off into the sunset - whither, t.Rutt hopes, the candidate could soon follow.
Gleeson's not sure what other performance elements may be added. He's been receiving an evolving set of instructions from t.Rutt via email and text message.
T.Rutt didn't respond to an email request for an interview.
The work is ridiculous, Gleeson acknowledged, but intentionally so. "It gets at the absurdity that some people are so frustrated with, politically."
And, if observers don't like that statement, they can let the artist know - with a splash of Red 40.
Visitors can aim their fruit punch at a banner reading T. RUMP, or they can target one that says t.RUTT, instead.
"It's equal opportunity," Gleeson said.
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