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The Mysterious People Behind The Naked Trump Statues SPEAK
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 19, 2016
Modified Aug 19, 2016
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 19, 2016
Modified Aug 19, 2016
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The anarchist collective that mysteriously erected unauthorized public statues of a naked Donald Trump in five cities across America yesterday has come forward to explain themselves, anonymously. A representative from the group, which calls itself INDECLINE, agreed to answer a number of questions from Gothamist over email while on a flight to the west coast this morning. Here is the group's unedited response to our questions.
Why? Trump is a monster relentlessly stalking America in a nightmare we can’t seem to wake up from. INDECLINE wanted to erect a tribute that spoke to Trump’s true nature using Hans Christian Andersen’s tale as our inspiration. If you know the story, you understand it’s about the Emperor’s fragile and delusional mental state
INDECLINE was also hoping to provide some of the thrust behind the hammer that currently seems to be driving the nail into his comedic and ridiculous run at the presidency.
How did you install these without anyone stopping you? Each member of the installation teams wore hard hats and bright neon construction vests. Nobody looked twice at them. Installations took less than 5 minutes in each city. The one in Union Square was done on top of a police station.
How did you decide on the cities / locations? Cleveland was chosen based on the fact that it’s Ginger’s hometown (he currently resides in Las Vegas). [Editor's note: Ginger is the artist who made the sculptures; more on him here.] The other cities were chosen based on two requirements: the first, that INDECLINE as a collective had a strong and willing support base available to work on the project and the second being that these cities and more so the areas we chose were all pretty vehemently Anti-Trump. We hoped this would lengthen the shelf life on these kamikaze installations a little.
Do you think art can stop Trump, or change anyone's opinions? Trump will stop Trump. He is his own worst enemy. All we can do is inspire those around us who feel the same way about his existence and gently remind his mentally malleable fanatics that an educated and passionate America is going to stand in the way of this joke of a political candidate. We’re better than that and in the coming weeks, this will most likely all be over if we continue the fight.
What do you hope to gain from this? We were pleased with the response and have been receiving hundreds of incredible emails from people from all over the world. People are inspired and want to know how to get involved in the INDECLINE movement. What we really need to focus on right now as a country is to stay active in our opposition to Trump. A lot of us made the mistake of laughing him off in the beginning and were dismayed to see how successful he was up to this point. Despite the fact that Hillary will most likely brutalize him come November, it would be a huge (“yuge”) mistake to stay inert.
Do you think it would be fair for Trump supporters to erect unflattering Naked Hillary statues in public? INDECLINE thinks it would be fair for Trump supporters to go pick up a copy of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and learn a little something about America before they cast as vote for someone hell-bent on destroying it.
Is making fun of normal human flaws stooping down to Trump’s level? Lots of people do look like this and now they’re having passersby call them ‘disgusting' by proxy. America wants to see his tax returns. INDECLINE wants to know if he’s got a small dick. Simple as that.
How much did this project cost? Where does the money come from? INDECLINE uses the funds received from online sales to fund these projects. The statues cost about $6,000 to create.
What's next? INDECLINE will just sit back and wait for America to do something disgraceful, then go paint a mural or make a film. That’s typically how we roll. Should be about a week before you hear from us again. Unfortunately, it’s been that kind of year.
In NYC, the Trump statue caused quite a stir in Union Square for several hours before being removed by the NYC Parks Department, which issued the following statement Thursday: "NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small."
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donald trump
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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