'18 & Stormy', 2018
33" x 26.4"
Offset poster with DVD Sticker
Edition of 100
Signed and dated, on recto
$500
18 & Stormy is based on a composite image constructed of photographs of the eighteen women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, plus Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress paid $130,000 for her silence by Donald Trump's personal attorney shortly before the 2016 Presidential Election.
The work draws on the history of composite photography, including the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who first experimented with the process in the 1920s, as well as the work of anthropologist Francis Galton, who conducted composite photography experiments in the Victorian era. It is a more political version of Prince's first experiment with the form, which he created in 2013: A composite image of the 57 girlfriends with whom Jerry Seinfeld appeared on screen during the run of Seinfeld.
Rather than diminishing or conflating the very different experiences these nineteen women have lived, or searching for facial resemblance as in Galton's experiments, we search for another commonality. 18 & Stormy highlights a different connecting thread. The clarity emerging from the fuzziness of the image is what each of these women implore: exposing the truth about their experiences with Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America.
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