When Santa Monica-based artist Karen Fiorito accepted a commission to create a large-scale public art piece expressing discontent with the Trump presidency, one can assume she knew the piece would be provocative, but she may not have expected the death threats and armed protestors that have followed the piece’s debut.
“There have been a couple of people who have said they will come and get me,” Fiorito told CBS Los Angeles of the death threats. The Phoenix New Times also reports that at least two pro-Trump protestors have come by the site of the piece with what appeared to be firearms.
Fiorito was commissioned by fellow artists and historic preservationist Beatrice Moore to create the 40-foot billboard installation, now installed on top of a building owned by Moore in the Arts District of Phoenix, Arizona. One side of the piece features an image of Donald Trump with a Russian flag pinned to his lapel, flanked by dollar signs stylized to evoke Nazi imagery, and on the other a more positive image featuring the word "unity."
This happened today in Phoenix. My Anti-@realDonaldTrump billboard. Enjoy. #antitrump #Trump #resist #ImpeachTrump #dumptrump #TheResistance pic.twitter.com/dCpzOk8s95
— Karen Fiorito (@buddhacatpress) March 17, 2017
In spite of the extremely negative reactions, the artist says there have also been positive responses to her work, both in person and online. Moore intends for the billboard to stay up through the duration of the Trump administration.
Billboards, particularly ones incorporating political messages, are a recurring theme in Fiorito’s practice dating back to her MFA thesis project. When she is not recontextualizing commercial billboards into statements of art and politics, she is the exhibitions chair of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society and specializes in socially engaged print work.
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